Hints of a pre-APEC chip war de-escalation

Around the one-year celebration of the first round of its chip war against China, which was announced on October 7, 2022, the United States is officially fine-tuning its export restrictions. & nbsp,

An unknown US national told Reuters on Monday that China has been informed about the updated procedures in recent months. & nbsp,

The report did not specify any specific changes that would be made, but any new regulations that weren’t ready for publication by early October would still be released following the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC ), which will take place in San Francisco from November 15 to October 17 in order to prevent the possibility of a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden.

In an effort to boost Sino-US relationships, some Taiwanese commentators anticipate that the US will relax some of its chip export restrictions in early October. & nbsp,

In an article that was published on October 3, a journalist from Guangdong speculates that the” fine-tuning of the US punishment will be aimed at stabilizing the diplomatic relations between the United States and China.” ” The US chooses to loosen its restrictions rather than tighten them, demonstrating that it acknowledges China’s development in chip systems.”

He claims that some European nations were shocked by Huawei Technologies’ Mate60 Pro smartphone’s effective launch in late August, which suggested that despite US sanctions, China is speeding up the development of its own device and lithography technologies. & nbsp,

HiSilicon cards are used in the Huawei Mate60 Pro. Featured image: Sohu.com

In a possible cooling of the chip war, the Guangdong columnist even makes the speculative claim that the US may permit its companies to send more high-end chips and chip-making tools to China. If so, he continues, several inland Chinese businesses will profit, even though some regional chip producers might not be as eager to create new technologies.

In order to safeguard US national security, the Bureau of Industry and Security ( BIS ) of the US Commerce Department implemented a number of targeted updates to its chip and chip-making equipment export controls on October 7, 2022.

At the time, it was stated that Chinese companies would be subject to a” presumption of denial” if they requested export licenses to construct facilities to produce logic chips with non-planar transistor architectures( FinFET or GAAFET ) of 16 or 14 nanometers. It stated that registration applications from facilities owned by multinational corporations would be reviewed case by case. & nbsp,

Additionally, the BIS forbade the export of 600 gigabytes per second artificial intelligence ( AI ) chips, including the A100 chips from Nvidia, to China. & nbsp,

For Chinese industry, Nvidia created A800 chips last November that operate at 400 gigabytes per minute. However, according to media reports from June of this year, Washington may last forbid the shipment of A800 chips to China. & nbsp,

The Chinese commentariat is speculating a lot, but it is still unclear how the US may modify its chip import regulations.

Both the US and China have worked to de-escalate the device war over the past two decades. While Beijing granted licenses next month for US companies to trade China’s chromium and germanium, metals used in the device industry, the Biden administration unveiled milder-than-expected expense curbs against the Chinese high tech sectors in August.

A Zhejiang-based author speculates in an content,” Although the US eased its sanctions against China’s chip business, it does not mean that it has completely given up its strategic aim to reduce China.” Only a phased adjustment, that’s all.

In order to strengthen Seoul’s assistance for its plan to boost the American chip sector, Washington may want to alleviate some of its restrictions on China given that some North Korean chip manufacturers have been caught up in the US-China device war.

He predicts that the US will shift to enhance its sanctions against China once it has established a strong relationship with Taiwan and South Korea in the global chip supply chain. & nbsp,

China outlawed native telecommunication companies from using chips made by US device manufacturer Micron in May. The US asked South Korea in June to refrain from profiting from Beijing’s restrictions on Micron by sending more bits to China.

The last rule implementing the regional protection” guardrails” of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act was published by the US Commerce Department on September 22. According to the rule, North Korean and Japanese businesses may apply for US incentives to open foundries in the United States, but they must first restrict their expansion in China. & nbsp,

However, according to Bloomberg, the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan is investigating the relationships between four Japanese companies and Huawei Technologies, which the US has sanctioned since 2019. & nbsp,

The Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona this year was dominated by Huawei’s display. Photo: Facebook

According to the report, the four companies may have assisted Huawei in getting around US device regulations. They include Cica – Hunter Chemical Technology Taiwan Co., a unit of construction firm United Integrated Services Co, Topco Scientific Co’s chip material reseller, L & amp, K Engineering Co

According to the review, they also offered their services to Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co., Pensun Technology Company, and SwaySure Technology Co, all of which are based in Shenzhen and intend to produce bits for Huawei. & nbsp,

According to The United Integrated Services, its product has already begun construction after winning a agreement from SwaySure Technology to rebuild its factory. It claimed that because the job does not contain any chip-related tools or goods, US regulations are not broken. & nbsp,

Earlier in 2022, Topco Scientific Co. claimed that Pengxinwei had awarded its Suzhou subsidiary a contract to manage its waste. On its site, Cia-Hunter recently stated that it had secured agreements to construct chemical supply networks for Pensun and Pengxinwei. K. L & amp did not offer any commentary on Bloomberg’s report. & nbsp,

As Pengxinwei was constructing foundries and acquiring used printing equipment to produce 28nm chips starting in 2025, the BIS blacklisted it in October 2022. & nbsp,

Study: Conversations between China and the US to de-escalate; metals agreement

At & nbsp, @ jeffpao3 is Jeff Pao’s Twitter account.