**”Restrictions on Equipment Access for Huawei and Suppliers Sought”**
U.S. lawmakers have urged the Biden administration to include Huawei’s suppliers in export and sales restrictions to block the Chinese company’s purchase access to American semiconductor equipment. This comes as the U.S. government considers setting national export limits on AI chips produced by companies like NVIDIA. The U.S. is increasing its scrutiny of Huawei, which is solidifying its position in the advanced semiconductor sector.
According to Bloomberg on the 16th, over 20 Republican and Democratic members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party expressed concerns over Huawei’s continued access to U.S. semiconductor equipment in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. They pointed out that Chinese companies like Pengxinwei and SwaySure Technology still have access to U.S. equipment and raised suspicions that these companies might be part of Huawei’s ‘secret network.’ The lawmakers argued that allowing companies similar to Huawei access to U.S. technology could harm national security and stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to block such access.
Previously, U.S. authorities have restricted Applied Materials and Lam Research, as well as allied companies such as the Netherlands’ ASML and Japan’s Tokyo Electron, from selling advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China. The U.S. government is also regulating access to semiconductor-related technology for companies like SMIC, China’s largest foundry, without U.S. approval. Further measures include considering setting export limits on AI chips to prevent these from being oversupplied to Middle Eastern countries which could serve as alternative routes for China.
The U.S. has been imposing various trade sanctions since the Trump administration, fearing that China’s success in developing advanced semiconductors could lead to these being used in military weaponry. Despite these sanctions, Huawei has recently unveiled a smartphone with a 7nm chipset, accelerating its development of advanced chips.
Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reported that the China Internet Security Alliance (CSAC), involving numerous Chinese IT companies, urged authorities for a security review of Intel products, claiming they pose a national security risk. This move appears to be a retaliatory response to U.S. measures against China’s semiconductor industry.