The Washington Post-GOP lawmakers call for heavier sanctions against Chinas Huawei SMIC
September 14, 2023 4 min 697 words
这篇报道涉及到十一位美国共和党议员呼吁对中国的华为科技和中芯国际进行更严厉的制裁，因为这两家公司展示了国产的先进智能手机芯片，绕过了美国的出口管制。这一举动引发了人们对美国在高级半导体方面的限制措施的效力以及北京是否成功规避这些限制的担忧。 首先，这种立场反映了美国对中国科技公司的担忧，特别是在5G芯片领域。华为的新手机产品Mate 60 Pro引发了对中芯国际是否违反了美国出口限制的质疑。这表明美国政府在限制中国科技巨头进入5G芯片时代方面面临一定的挑战。 十一位共和党议员的信中提出了一系列加强对中国芯片产业制裁的建议，包括建立一个中国面向的制裁机构，吊销所有现有的对华为和中芯国际的出口许可证，以及对公司高管提起刑事诉讼。这显示出他们认为美国的出口管制存在漏洞，并呼吁采取更严格的措施。 然而，尽管有人认为华为和中芯国际的新芯片难以完全避开美国技术，但证据仍然不足。美国官员尚未确认是否有证据证明中芯国际违反了制裁。因此，这种行动仍存在争议和不确定性。 总的来说，这篇报道反映了美中科技竞争的复杂性和敏感性。美国政府需要在维护国家安全和创新领域的竞争中找到平衡，同时确保出口管制的有效性。这个问题将继续受到关注，因为美中关系在科技领域的竞争将对全球格局产生深远影响。
2023-09-14T20:22:45.164Z
Ten Republican lawmakers are calling on the Commerce Department to impose heavier sanctions against China’s Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., after the two companies displayed a domestically manufactured advanced smartphone chip, circumventing U.S. export controls.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) and nine other lawmakers signed the letter dated Thursday, which suggested seven measures to tighten sanctions against China’s chip industry and punish Huawei and SMIC for allegedly violating U.S. export controls. The letter was addressed to Alan Estevez, undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security.
Earlier this month, Huawei unveiled a smartphone running an advanced processor made by SMIC, timed to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to Beijing. The phone launch made waves in U.S. policy circles, as an apparent sign that a four-year campaign in Washington had failed to prevent China’s state-supported tech champions from making the jump to the 5G era of chips.
Huawei’s new phone, the Mate 60 Pro, sent lawmakers scurrying to try to understand if SMIC had violated U.S. sanctions to make the chip.
The lawmakers’ letter enumerates how the Commerce Department could wield arcane export controls law to make it harder for China’s chip makers going forward.
The letter called on the Commerce Department to set up a China-facing sanctions authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which could impose “full blocking sanctions” on Huawei and SMIC. It called for all existing export licenses to Huawei and SMIC to be revoked, and for criminal charges to be pursued against the companies’ executives.
The Republican lawmakers’ letter addresses a long-standing complaint by some in Washington that the export controls had holes, allowing U.S. technology to still filter to China. Nazak Nikakhtar, who was a Commerce Department assistant secretary under the Trump administration, said that they had long known the export controls were far from airtight.
“Our export controls shouldn’t have gaps and holes in the way that they do,” she said. “This isn’t an indictment of the Biden administration or Trump administration or anybody in particular. This is across the board.”
The letter said that reports of the phone “suggest” a violation of U.S. export control regulations due to the ubiquity of U.S. technology in the global semiconductor supply chain. But proof that SMIC violated sanctions with the new chip remains elusive. Chip experts say while it would have been very difficult for the two companies to sidestep any and all U.S. technology in developing the chip, it is not impossible.
U.S. officials so far have not confirmed if they have evidence that either incriminates or exonerates SMIC. The Commerce Department said in a statement last week that they were still working to obtain more information on the “character and composition of the purported 7nm chip.”
“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 statement said.
The Commerce Department, Huawei and SMIC did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Doug Fuller, a chip researcher at the Copenhagen Business School, said he believed the chance that SMIC could make a 7-nanometer chip efficiently at scale without U.S. equipment was “basically zero,” but that it was possible for it to make them “very inefficiently in small volumes without American equipment.”
Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University and author of the book “Chip War,” said “it would be pretty surprising if U.S. tools weren’t used. But I wouldn’t say I’m highly certain of that conclusion.”
The letter was also signed by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), Robert E. Latta (R-Ohio), Young Kim (R-Calif.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.), and H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.).