The United States has reportedly called on its allies, including Japan and the Netherlands, to strengthen their chip export ban after media reports said China will use deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines to mass produce 5 nanometer chips this year.
The Biden administration is urging Japanese firms to limit export of specialized chip-making chemicals, including photoresist, to China, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
A photoresist is a light-sensitive material used to form a patterned coating on the surface of a substrate, or silicon wafer, during the process of photolithography and photoengraving.
Washington is also pressing the Dutch government to stop ASML, the world’s largest chip equipment maker, from servicing and repairing lithography devices of the type that had been shipped to China but since the beginning of this year have been subject to new export controls.
On January 1 this year, ASML said the Dutch government had partially revoked its license for the shipment of NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems to China.
But it did not say whether its export license for the shipment of NXT:2000i also had been revoked. The NXT:2000i, together with the older NXT:1980Di, are capable of making 5nm or 7nm chips but the yield will be too low for commercial operation.
The Bloomberg report said Washington also wants Germany and South Korea to restrict the exports of their Zeiss optical lenses and chip-equipment parts, respectively, to China.
An official at Japan’s industry ministry told Reuters that the ministry routinely discusses export controls with relevant countries.
The Netherlands’ considerations
Micky Adriaansens, the Dutch economic affairs minister, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that Europe needs a strategy on key technologies amid growing US-China trade tensions.
She said she will meet European industry commissioner Thierry Breton on Thursday to discuss the matter.
She said the Netherlands is working on its industrial technology policies on protecting and promoting a handful of technologies where the nation has an advantage such as semiconductors. She said the Dutch government will speed up the implementation of these policies.
However, she added that the Netherlands would not necessarily support further restrictions or an attempt to isolate China technologically.
“You have to be very careful what you’re doing because it also has negative side effects,” she said.
“I cannot speak for the American state, they have to do it for themselves, and they will. But from our point of view, we need the world, we need everybody to have an open economy.”
China’s Guancha.cn on Thursday published an article with the headline “The United States urges four allies to strengthen chip export bans against China but is ignored by some of them.”
Citing unnamed sources, the report said Japan and the Netherlands have given cold shoulders to the United States’ latest attempt to suppress China. It said the two countries want to assess the impact of their existing chip export control before taking tougher measures.
The article said US commerce officials had called on their counterparts in Japan to strengthen their rules during an export control meeting in Tokyo in February. Besides, it said the US and South Korea have begun talks on chip export control issues last month.
It also stressed that Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany, who plans to visit China in April, has not yet made a decision on whether the country should restrict export of optical lenses to China.
5nm chips
In early February, the Financial Times reported that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China’s largest chip maker, will mass produce 5nm chips for Huawei Technologies later this year.
The report said SMIC will use its existing stock of immersion DUV lithography to produce 5nm chips despite low yields and high production cost.
Last August, Huawei surprisingly launched the Kirin 9000s chip, a 7nm made by SMIC, in its Mate60 Pro phone.
Even if ASML stops providing maintenance services to the equipment banned in China, the direct negative impact on the country’s chip industry will be very limited, said some commentators.
Even if ASML stops providing maintenance to the banned lithography equipment in China, the direct negative impact on the country’s chip industry will be very limited, said some commentators.
There may be fewer than five ASML lithography in China as advanced as NXT:2000i, they said, citing a report published by Caijing.com last November.
Rather, the new chip export ban suggested by the US, if successful, will have a political meaning as it can show Washington’s ability to form an anti-China alliance, they said.
‘International fairness’
On Thursday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi commented on the US curbs in a media briefing during the National People’s Congress (NPC) annual meeting.
He said the US and China set a direction to stabilize their relations during a top leader summit last November. However, he said the US side still has wrong concepts about China and has not realized any promises it made.
“The US continues to create new methods to suppress China while the list of its unilateral sanctions is constantly being extended,” Wang said. “The practice of wrongful incrimination has reached an unimaginable level.”
“If the US only wants itself to prosper, but denies other countries legitimate development, where is international fairness?,” he said. “If it persistently monopolizes the high end of the value chain, and keeps China at the low end, where is fairness and competition?”
He urged the US to work together with China to improve the Sino-US relations.
Read: SMIC to sell Huawei costly, inefficient 5nm chips
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