Beijing mocks US sanctions by advancing chip technology
She was firm when Beijing officials begged her to lift the tech sanctions.
Raimondo, who recently visited China, told reporters: “Ofcourse I said no.” “We do not negotiate national security issues.”
But 48 hours after her visit a new power dynamic emerged. The Chinese sent a signal to US officials in order to demonstrate that they didn’t have as many cards at their disposal as they had thought.
As Raimondo shook hands with Li Qiang – China’s de facto second politician and premier – on August 29, Huawei announced the launch of a new phone that seemed to mock US sanctions.
The Mate 60 Pro, which contains high-tech chip technology previously believed to be beyond China’s capability, represents an astonishing leap that the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden spent years trying to prevent . The new Huawei phone, and its chip as the main component, has led Chinese state-run media to boast that America’s “extreme suppression” policy has failed.
Washington experts are now worried that Beijing’s efforts to develop their own advanced technology, will allow China make significant advances when it comes advanced weaponry and AI. This area is seen as an important battleground for cybersecurity and information war.
They are found in everything from washing machines to smartphones and even cruise missiles. The future will also be based on them, such as artificial intelligence.
It is believed that the chips used in the Mate 60 Pro were made by Shanghai’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, a company sanctioned in 2020 by the US for alleged ties to the “Chinese military industrial complex”. SMIC denies that it has any links with the military.
Taiwan, a close ally of the West, is seen as being the world leader in manufacturing. There are concerns that China may be catching up. Beijing sees chips as a key part of its plan to dominate technologies worldwide.
Yang Wang, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research says that if Huawei were to develop a smartphone capable of 5G, the implications for the industry would be far-reaching.
It would be a sign of early success for China in its efforts to indigenize key parts of the semiconductor chain, despite US sanctions.
Size is the most important factor for any semiconductor, as it allows manufacturers to squeeze more computing power in the same space. The size of the transistors is measured on this scale in nanometers, and the smallest ones are the most powerful. One nanometer equals one billionth of a metre.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s chips, which are used in Apple’s latest iPhone models, have a four-nanometer processor.
China had been thought to be able to produce chips with a 14-nanometer maximum, but US sanctions have restricted the company from importing technology that is 16-nanometer.
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro uses a chip with a 7 nanometer size for its small central processor. TechInsights said that the Huawei phone had the most advanced chip it has ever seen in a Chinese device.
Washington is scrambling now to find out how the company orchestrated such a coup.
A top US legislator on Wednesday gave the answer that illegal sanctions were being broken.
Michael McCaul (a Republican and the chair of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee) said, “It looks like they did,” when asked whether SMIC had appeared to violate sanctions. He suggested that Congress launch an investigation.
Jake Sullivan said that the White House is seeking “more” information, according to the White House’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.
Republicans asked Biden to increase sanctions against the two Chinese firms after the apparent breakthrough in chip technology. Mike Gallagher is the chairman of Congress’ China Committee. He says that it’s time to stop all US technology exports both to Huawei and SMIC.
SK Hynix, a South Korean company, has opened an investigation into how its memory chip ended up in the Huawei phone. Bloomberg reported that SK Hynix had cancelled all its contracts with Huawei after the US imposed sanctions on the Chinese firm.
SMIC refused to comment when approached by SMIC on Wednesday.
Analysts believe that the SMIC 7 nanometer chip could be a limited run prototype being used to promote propaganda.
Experts doubt that the manufacturer is able to achieve true mass production. They point out that it took Western chip makers years to learn how to cram so many transistors on a tiny piece of silicon.
There are some signs that production is increasing. Huawei was accused of building “secret” factories in China under other companies’ names, to circumvent American restrictions and import technology. Huawei has refused to comment on these reports.
The Mate 60 Pro has been a PR success for Beijing.
Last week, a spokesperson for Beijing said that “the resurgence in Huawei smartphones after 3 years of forced quiet is enough proof that the US extreme suppression has failed”.
Recently, American media outlets have been ecstatic about hype like Huawei building a “secret” chip factory. These are the results of a failure to recognize or a refusal believe in a general trend. They also hold onto outdated beliefs that Chinese technology is’stolen.
The US will pay the price of this arrogance.
Dr Mann Virdee is a senior research fellow for science and technology at the Council on Geostrategy. He said, “On the surface, this looks like a win for Huawei, and it shows how China has been able to grow its chip ecosystem in-house and develop its technical capabilities.
The fact that they were able to achieve this is a significant advance and a blow for US efforts to restrict that progress.
Dan Hutcheson is vice-chairman at TechInsights and says that the breakthrough will likely trigger even more severe sanctions, as the Biden Administration scrambles in order to stop further advancements.
He said that the result could be greater restrictions in the future than those currently in place.
Chinese nationalists are currently gloating. Chinese internet users joked for the last week that Raimondo had become a Huawei brand ambassador, due to the timing of the trip and the launch.
The image that the Commerce Secretary wanted to portray was not likely what she had in mind when her plane left China last week.
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