
This report provides clues to understanding China’s updated semiconductor strategy in this new era of global technology competition. allies to join it create a transformed landscape for the Chinese semiconductor industry, which had previously been making rapid, albeit uneven, technological progress. The October 7 policy and the ongoing U.S. Rather than revising the performance thresholds upward every few years, as had been done in the past, the Biden administration intends to hold those benchmarks constant, meaning that the gap in performance will grow over time as the world advances and China remains stuck behind. Third, to the extent possible, the policy seeks to prevent China from ever again reaching certain advanced performance thresholds in semiconductor technology. Leading Chinese semiconductor firms such as Biren, YMTC, SMIC, and SMEE have all been set back years.

The new policy, by contrast, actively degrades the peak technological capability of China’s semiconductor industry. export controls were designed to allow China to progress technologically but to restrict the pace so that the United States and its allies retained a durable lead. trade and technology policy toward China in at least three ways.įirst, rather than restricting exports of advanced semiconductor technology to China based on whether the exports were related to military end uses or to prohibited end users, the new policy restricted them on a geographic basis for China as a whole. However, the implementation approach and underlying logic of the new regulations marked a major reversal of 25 years of U.S. It only restricted exports of certain types of advanced computer chips for AI applications and the diverse set of technologies needed to design and manufacture AI chips. In many ways, the October 7 policy was narrowly targeted. And at the heart of that competition is technology.” “The post-Cold War world has come to an end, and there is an intense competition underway to shape what comes next. “We are at an inflection point,” Blinken said. secretary of state Antony Blinken nearly said as much in a speech delivered only 10 days after the new policy was enacted.

While most Americans are likely only faintly aware of the October 7 policy and its significance, the date marked the beginning of a new era in U.S.-China relations and, with it, international politics.

STRATEGIC WAR IN EUROPE REVIEW SERIES
government enacted a series of new export control regulations targeting China’s artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industries. The first, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, hardly needs further explanation. Two dates from 2022 seem certain to echo in geopolitical history.
