A US official was heading to Japan after meeting with the Dutch government to try to push allies to further restrict China’s ability to produce cutting-edge semiconductors, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
US Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez was trying to build on last year’s agreement between the three countries to keep chipmaking equipment from China that could help to modernize its military.
In response, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian (林劍) said that Beijing was opposed to the US engaging in confrontation and “coercing other countries and suppressing China’s semiconductor industry.”
Photo: Reuters
“This behavior has seriously hindered the development of the global semiconductor industry and will eventually backfire,” Lin told a press briefing in Beijing yesterday.
A spokesperson for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed a meeting had taken place in the Netherlands on Monday.
The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry said it has various exchanges with the US, but would not comment on diplomatic interactions.
The US first imposed restrictions in 2022 on shipments of advanced chips and chipmaking equipment to China from companies including California-based Nvidia Corp and Lam Research Corp.
To align with US policy, Japan — home to chip equipment makers Nikon Corp and Tokyo Electron Ltd — in July last year curbed exports of 23 types of equipment, from machines that deposit films on silicon wafers to devices that etch out the microscopic circuits.
Then the Dutch government began to regulate Netherlands-based ASML Holding NV’s sales of deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography system sales to China and the US imposed restrictions on additional DUV machines to a handful of Chinese factories, claiming jurisdiction because ASML’s systems contain US parts and components. ASML is the world’s biggest chip equipment maker by sales and market capitalization.
Washington is talking to allies about adding 11 more Chinese chipmaking factories to a restricted list, the person said.
There are currently five factories on the list, the person said, including China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯).
The US also says it wants to control additional chipmaking equipment, the person said.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Commerce declined to comment.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday’s meeting was part of ongoing talks on export policy and security between the US and the Netherlands.
The Netherlands “always has continual contact with our allies,” the spokesperson said.
US officials visited the Netherlands in April to try to stop ASML from servicing certain equipment in China.
However, the ASML servicing contracts are still in place, the person said, adding that the Dutch government does not have the extraterritorial scope to cut them off.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$10.26 billion to finance the construction of its second fab in Kumamoto, Japan, and a second fab in Arizona, using advanced process technologies. The Department of Investment Review approved TSMC’s investment applications on the basis that Taiwan remains a major technology and manufacturing hub for the chipmaker, which makes its most advanced chips at home, the company operates its research-and-development center here and the majority of its capacity remains in Taiwan. The latest capital injections — US$5.26 billion for its Japanese venture Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing
Packed into a small room, a drone, bipedal robot, supermarket checkout and other devices showcase a vision of China’s software future — one where an operating system developed by national champion Huawei (華為) has replaced Windows and Android. The collection is at the Harmony Ecosystem Innovation Center in the southern city of Shenzhen, a local government-owned entity that encourages authorities, companies and hardware makers to develop software using OpenHarmony (鴻蒙), an open-source version of the operating system Huawei launched five years ago after US sanctions cut off support for Google’s Android. While Huawei’s recent strong-selling smartphone launches have been closely watched for
The waves of the Aegean Sea lap gently at the tables and chairs of two beach restaurants on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula. It is an idyllic scene, but one that is totally illegal. Like many others in Greece, the two establishments on Pefkochori Beach do not have a license to set up shop so close to the water. After a wave of protests last summer by locals about bars and restaurants illegally covering beaches with sunbeds and tables, the Greek state is taking action. It is cracking down on rogue tourist practices with surveillance drones, satellite imagery and a special app
AI BOOM: With many stocks trading at historically high levels, the TAIEX is expected to drop about 600 points in the third quarter as investors seek to pocket their profits Taiwan’s main board could experience a technical pullback after the TAIEX soared more than 28 percent in the first half of this year following a strong showing by artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, analysts said on Saturday, predicting that the index would make a comeback in the fourth quarter. On Friday, the last trading session of this month, the TAIEX rose 126.27 points, or 0.55 percent, to 23,032.25, pushing up the main board by 5,101.44 points, or 28.4 percent, in the first six months of the year. Of the major indices in the world, the TAIEX only trailed the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index