A video explaining why the U.S. brought in restrictions on the export of semiconductors, or chips, to China and how badly it will affect China
A video explaining why the U.S. brought in restrictions on the export of semiconductors, or chips, to China and how badly it will affect China
Last month, the U.S. brought in restrictions on export of semiconductors, or chips, to China. This is unprecedented.
Earlier, the world’s biggest economy has had some restrictions on export to the Asian country, such as a particular kind of technology or on technology sharing with a specific company such as Huawei, but this time the U.S. has gone big bang: no export of advanced chips, or of equipment used in the manufacture of such chips, nor even blanket permissions on U.S. citizens and green card holders to work with China on such technology. To do any of these, you would need a license from the U.S. government.
Why did the US do this now? In two words: national security. The US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said, all major U.S. defense systems and platforms rely on semiconductors for their performance. Consequently, the erosion of U.S. capabilities in microelectronics is a direct threat to the United States’ ability to defend itself and its allies. Wars of the future will be fought on technology.
It looks like there would be a significant impact on China. After all, Taiwan ships more chips than any other country. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment comes from ASML in the Netherlands and Samsung in Korea and some of it from Japan. Couldn’t China cock a snook at the US and buy from these nations? It looks like it isn’t that simple.
How would China’s global tech ambitions be hit here? Is there any chance for India to gain some opportunistic business?
Script and presentation: K. Bharat Kumar
Production: Shibu Narayan
Videography: Johan Sathyadas
