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The Trump administration plans to establish a number of Chinese chipmaking companies on a black export list, but some officials want to delay the move to avoid damaging efforts to reach a long -term trade agreement with China.
The Department of Trade has compiled a list of Chinese companies – including the Chipmaker Changxin Memory (CXMT) memory – to add to the “entity list”, according to the five persons familiar with the issue.
Some of the people said the industry and security bureau, the wing of the Department of Trade that oversees export controls, had compiled a list that also includes the Production Affiliates of the International Corp semiconductor, China’s largest chipmaker and Yangtze Technologies Co, the largest memory chipmaker. SMIC and YMTC are already in the list.
But the time of the mass has been complicated by the Trade Agreement agreed by China and the US in Geneva on the weekend to reduce reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to help reach a broader trading agreement.
Some Trump administration officials have argued that placing export controls in Chinese critical groups can now endanger negotiations.
But others emphasized that the Republicans criticized the Biden administration for delaying competitive action against China to facilitate what they called “mummy diplomacy”.
China Hawks has long pushed to target CXMT, which is rapidly expanding its share in the global market of dram memory chips. Chipmaker is also leading efforts to become a player in high band memory development (HBM), which is essential for the operation of artificial intelligence models.
Adding chipmakers to the black export is the last attempt by the US to make it much harder for China to get advanced American chips and chipmking technology that can be used to help modernize its army.
US companies cannot sell Chinese groups on the units list without government licenses, which have become increasingly difficult to obtain.
US security officials are worried that it has been very easy for China to obtain American technology, which has supported its army in the development of hypersonic weapons and nuclear weapons modeling.
Chinese companies could not be reached for comment. The Chinese Embassy at the USA refused to comment on the issue, but said: “China with excessive US determines the concept of national security, abusing export controls and blocking and deliberately oppressing China.”
The Department of Trade and the White House both refused to comment.
