Daisy Watts 
Dec 30, 2023
The Biden administration has recently published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with US equipment.
The rules build on restrictions sent in letters this year to top toolmakers KLA Corp, Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc, effectively requiring them to halt shipments of equipment to wholly Chinese-owned factories producing advanced logic chips.
US shift on shipping tech to China
The measures could amount to the biggest shift in US policy toward shipping technology to China since the 1990s.
If effective, they could hobble China's chip manufacturing industry by forcing American and foreign companies that use US technology to cut off support for some of China’s leading factories and chip designers.
US struggle with China's chip industry
The US faces significant challenges in containing China’s chip industry. The new export controls are aimed at preventing foreign firms from selling advanced chips to China or supplying Chinese firms with tools to make their own advanced chips.
Read more: Semiconductor market likely to recover in 2024
However, the US has not secured any promises that allied nations would implement similar measures, and discussions with those nations are ongoing.
The expansion of US powers to control exports to China of chips made with US tools is based on a broadening of the so-called foreign direct product rule.
It was previously expanded to give the US government authority to control exports of chips made overseas to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and later to stop the flow of semiconductors to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
Expert opinion
Jim Lewis, a technology and cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington DC-based think tank, believes that the new export controls will set the Chinese back years.
However, he also notes that China isn’t going to give up on chipmaking, but this will really slow them down.
The US is rapidly ramping up efforts to try to hobble China’s progress in the semiconductor industry — vital for everything from smartphones to weapons of war.
