Tech war: US Republican lawmakers urge Biden to crack down on China’s Huawei, SMIC after chip breakthrough
- Several senior House Republicans have called on the US Commerce Department to stop granting licences to top Chinese chip maker SMIC
- The lawmakers have also said the Biden administration should ‘pursue criminal charges against executives from SMIC and Huawei’
The lawmakers – including the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, Armed Services, and select China committees – urged the Commerce Department to stop granting licences to Chinese government-controlled companies such as SMIC, and said it called for additional US pressure “and more effective export controls on our adversaries”.
The letter led by Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul called on the administration “to strategically bar the import of SMIC-produced semiconductors, particularly those that pose risks to national security, into the United States”, and for the administration to “pursue criminal charges against executives from SMIC and Huawei”.
Huawei and SMIC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Commerce Department, which did not immediately comment on the letter, said last week it is working to obtain more information “on the character and composition” of the chip that may violate trade restrictions.
“The restrictions in place since 2019 have knocked Huawei down and forced it to reinvent itself – at a substantial cost to the (Chinese) government,” the department said.