Washington alarmed as US starts probes into made-in-China Huawei chip
The US government has ordered an official probe into an advanced made-in-China chip housed within Huawei Technologies Co.’s latest smartphone. This revelation has set off a debate in Washington about the efficacy of sanctions intended to contain a geopolitical rival.
The Commerce Department, which enacted a series of restrictions against Huawei and China’s chip industry over the past two years, said it’s working to get more information on a “purported” 7-nanometer processor discovered within the Mate 60 Pro.
The chip was made by China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., which like Huawei is blacklisted by the US and restricted from accessing American technology.
The reveal of a Huawei mobile phone utilizing technology the US has sought to keep out of Beijing’s hands threatens to derail recent efforts of outreach by the Biden administration. The phone went on sale online while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was on a trip to China last week, the latest in a series of high-level diplomatic visits to Beijing.
The debate now centers around whether it represents a failure of US efforts — led by Raimondo’s department — to restrain China’s tech sector, which Washington fears will give it a military edge. It is also raising questions about whether the main US mechanisms to do that — controls on exports of key materials, tools and knowhow — need to be tightened.
“We are working to obtain more information on the character and composition of the of the purported 7nm chip,” a Commerce spokesperson said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: export controls are just one tool in the U.S. government’s toolbox to address the national security threats presented by the PRC. The restrictions in place since 2019 have knocked Huawei down and forced it to reinvent itself — at a substantial cost to the PRC government.”
The Mate 60 Pro smartphone employs an unusually high proportion of Chinese parts, in addition to its main processor, a sign of the country’s progress in developing domestic tech capabilities.
See What’s Next in Tech With the Fast Forward Newsletter
Tweets From @varindiamag
Nothing to see here - yet
When they Tweet, their Tweets will show up here.