Hints Of A Pre-APEC Chip War De-Escalation
Date
10/4/2023 12:10:37 AM
(MENAFN- Asia Times) The United States is reportedly fine-tuning its chip export curbs, with plans to publish updated rules around the one-year anniversary of the first salvo of its chip war on China announced on October 7, 2022.
China has been notified in recent weeks about the updated measures, an unnamed US official told Reuters on Monday.
The report did not say what specific changes would be made but any new rules not ready for publication by early October would be published after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to be held on November 15-17 in San Francisco to avoid jeopardizing a potential meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden.
Some Chinese commentators expect that the US will ease some of its chip export rules in early October in a bid to improve Sino-US relations.
“The fine-tuning of the US sanctions will be aimed at stabilizing the bilateral relations between the US and China,” a Guangdong-based columnist speculates in an article published on October 3.“The US chooses to relax its curbs, instead of tightening them, showing that it recognizes China's advancement in chip technologies.”
He says some Western countries were shocked by the successful launch of Huawei Technologies's Mate60 Pro smartphone in late August, which appeared to show China is accelerating the development of its own chip and lithography technologies despite US sanctions.
Huawei's Mate60 Pro uses HiSilicon chips. Photo: Sohu
The Guangdong columnist also speculates that the US may allow its companies to ship more high-end chips and chip-making tools to China, in a potential cooling of the chip war. If so, he adds, many downstream Chinese companies will benefit while certain local chip makers may be less motivated to develop their own technologies.
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