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China Technology

US Sanctions Help China Supercharge Its Chipmaking Industry (bloomberg.com) 45

China's chip industry is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, after US sanctions on local champions from Huawei to Hikvision spurred appetite for home-grown components. From a report: Nineteen of the world's 20 fastest-growing chip industry firms over the past four quarters, on average, hail from the world's No. 2 economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compared with just 8 at the same point last year. Those China-based suppliers of design software, processors and gear vital to chipmaking are expanding revenue at several times the likes of global leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. or ASML Holding NV.

That supercharged growth underscores how tensions between Washington and Beijing are transforming the global $550 billion semiconductor industry -- a sector that plays an outsized role in everything from defense to the advent of future technologies like AI and autonomous cars. In 2020, the US began restricting sales of American technology to companies like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, successfully containing their growth -- but also fueling a boom in Chinese chip-making and supply.

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US Sanctions Help China Supercharge Its Chipmaking Industry

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  • Yay ... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Freischutz ( 4776131 )
    The greatest (and most orange) deal maker in the known universe has managed to create more Chinese competitors to American industry with his sanctions that were intended to kill off Chinese competitors to American industry.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      China was already slowly moving towards domestic chip manufacturing, and domestic designs. The sanctions sped things up a lot.

      • With the ongoing chip shortage, maybe adding some more chip producers into the world and creating more chip making competition is actually a REALLY GOOD THING.

        Maybe someday, I'll actually be able to find an 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 in stock. Or buy a new car at a reasonable price, with all the features that are currently being striped out due to lack of chips.

        • With the ongoing chip shortage, maybe adding some more chip producers into the world and creating more chip making competition is actually a REALLY GOOD THING.

          Maybe someday, I'll actually be able to find an 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 in stock. Or buy a new car at a reasonable price, with all the features that are currently being striped out due to lack of chips.

          The problem with that idea is that if this asinine, and according to the orange moron, easily won trade war continues will be divided into two fundamentally completely incompatible tech-spheres, the Western one and the Chinese one and you are going to have to choose which of the two you want to live in.

      • China was already slowly moving towards domestic chip manufacturing, and domestic designs. The sanctions sped things up a lot.

        ... and now they are moving towards domestic chip manufacturing, and domestic designs at the speed of sound ... thanks to the orange one. Your point?

    • Governor Trump: Xi, before your fall, I'd like you to join me for a ceremony that will make this dynasty operational. No one will dare oppose the Emperor now. Xi: The more you tighten your grip, Trump, the more IC fab systems will slip through your fingers.
    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      While true, he was the first to see Chinese government as an adversary rather than a friend, which is truly astounding seeing how much he openly admires dictators and wishes he could be a king like them. Still, a stopped clock is still right twice a day.

      Decades of cozying up to the CCP have not done us any long-term favors, nor have they advanced the cause of freedom and democracy in China. Indeed I don't think you can blame Trump for the position we now find ourselves in with regards to technology indep

      • by jemmyw ( 624065 )

        I don't think it's a matter of when, despite the rhetoric by the CCP. They have to spout that stuff, it keeps their population whipped up with nationalism and other countries on edge. Maybe they even believe it themselves. But actually attacking - even if they succeed in the end it would be awful for both sides.

        Ukraine successfully held off Russia's initial attack and have them drawn into a long and costly war, and they've been modernising and preparing for just 8 years, have no navy, little airforce and sh

        • by caseih ( 160668 )

          A lot of expert China watchers disagree. But we should all hope you're right and that the CCP and Xi act in a way that is rational.
          But then again we expected Putin to be rational, and here we are. Likely the Russian invasion's incredible cost is probably giving Xi some pause. And China is already taking over large parts of the world economically using their belt and road initiative and with other methods including political lobbying and propaganda, expanding their influence over a wide area.

          The Chinese m

          • by jemmyw ( 624065 )

            I do think China's influence, and indeed economy, are overstated by analysts and experts when taken in relation to the USA. A lot of their economy is smoke and mirrors, property debt, the kind of government prop up that would just vanish in the wind the moment they stop being able to prop it up. Plus, as a country, they are a lot more reliant on imports for food and energy than the US, and will be more dramatically effected by climate change. They are more dependent on the US and the global economy than Rus

      • Re:Yay ... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday June 22, 2022 @03:49AM (#62641424)

        he was the first to see Chinese government as an adversary rather than a friend

        No he wasn't. China was never seen as an open friend by any US administration. Don't confuse the USA's economic relationship with China with "friendship". The economic program was always about an attempt to advance causes of freedom and democracy. The fact it didn't work ... notwithstanding.

        The big problem with the USA was not it's relationship to China, but it's relationship to its own citizens. It's unfathomable to think a government policy could ever raise the cost of products or the cost of living in the USA, and as such every possible trade barrier has been reduced and every possible source of manufacturing has been shifted to a lowest cost alternative.

        Don't confuse this local policy with friendship to China. All presidents have held them at arms length. The difference being past presidents were diplomatic (Obama rejecting the Group-of-Two coalition idea that floated around during his presidnecy) rather than acting like children (tariff everything, what do you mean illegal according to the WTO? Pull out of the WTO!)

        The USA has local policy issues, not China policy issues.

  • to 100 employees grew by 2000%. Omg so huge!

    Regardless of whetever self-serving crap was going through Trumps mind at the time, the real effect of the chip bans was to keep China away from building critical western infrastructure and to prevent them from stealing the top tier of IC tech. Shrinking their industry wasnt really the goal.
  • Bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2022 @04:49PM (#62640532)
    China was always going to do this. This is just some industry group trying to get the sanctions lifted by running puff pieces. China is squeezing out freaking movies, you think they're not going to do the same for chips?
    • China goes where ever there is profit to be made. They were definitely always heading this way but the sanctions have had a huge acceleration effect on their industry and investment.
      • Xi has shown that control trumps profits if each butt heads.

        • by ffkom ( 3519199 )

          Xi has shown that control trumps profits if each butt heads.

          Indeed, their ongoing,economy-devastating no-Covid-strategy clearly shows that another excuse to suppress dissent is more worth to Xi than a lot of missed profit.

          • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

            He also essentially killed some large Chinese corporations because he felt their CEO's were getting too power-hungry.

    • This. Sanctions were never going to stop China from *cough* stealing *cough* I mean, making their own chips. The sanctions actually kicked the rest of the world in the ass saying "Unless you do something quickly, nobody BUT China is going to be making chips."

    • China knows that if they invade Taiwan they may end up destroying plant production at TSMC for a long time...without TSMC, who builds in China? They will move to S.Korea and Samsung, GF and Qualcomm fabs...even Intel will be competitive for fabs of ARM chips.

      At the same time they are looking for ways to avoid using the SWIFT payment system...Xi wants independence from the western world.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Instead of starting a trade war, it would have been much better to invest in US tech to keep it ahead. Huawei getting to 5G years before everyone else and owning all the critical patents on it should have been a wake-up call.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    China’s chip industry is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, after US sanctions on local champions from Huawei Technologies Co. to Hikvision spurred appetite for home-grown components.

    Nineteen of the world’s 20 fastest-growing chip industry firms over the past four quarters, on average, hail from the world’s No. 2 economy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compared with just 8 at the same point last year. Those China-based suppliers of design software, processors an

  • It's the subsidies (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TomGreenhaw ( 929233 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2022 @05:11PM (#62640600)
    The piles of money the Chinese government is throwing at their semiconductor industry is what is supercharging its growth. The stupid tariffs and trade policy are simply adding additional motivation for them to do so.
  • by Babel-17 ( 1087541 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2022 @05:16PM (#62640616)

    It's prudent to have a Plan B if you're vulnerable to what was done to Russia. I suppose Russia being willing to pay extra for what it has to have is an incentive for China to broaden its chip production.

  • It won't help any of them much, they're still dependend on companies like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] - and not just like ASML, but mainly. So they can go fuck themselves (also American, also Taiwaneese semiconductor companies)
  • by khchung ( 462899 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2022 @09:06PM (#62640948) Journal

    The exact same thing has already happened with the Chinese space station and Beidou satnav system, to give two highly visible example.

    In both cases, China was blocked from joining multinational efforts, the US banned China from joining the ISS in the 1990s, and Europe put in road blocks for technical participation even after China paid to join the Galileo effort, leading to China withdrawing from Galileo and started their own Beidou system. The result is the Chinese Tiangong space station while the ISS is going to retire soon, and the Beidou system now fully functional while Galileo is still nowhere to be seen.

    While Americans often like to remind Europeans that the one state in the US is comparable to a country in Europe, so you should not compare the US to any single European country, but should compare with the whole Europe, similarly Americans should be reminded that China has a higher population than NA & EU combined, and also produces more STEM graduates than the whole of NA & EU. Give China 10-20 years, they can develop any tech they needed. The US tech sanction list is basically a to-do list for China, telling them exactly what tech they need to develop first.

    So instead of comfortably making more profits for the US companies selling to China, all these sanctions did is to immediately reduce the profits they could have made, slowing their R&D, and then in the next 10-20 years face competition from Chinese companies after China developed their own. Lose-lose for US companies in both short term and long term. Only US politicians benefit by getting votes.

  • Tech needs to move away from mainly just relying on one country. It should be FREE for all and FREE from any political machinations. It should not be weaponized and should be left out of the egotistical political fighting that our so-called leaders like to do. Go take your D#@K wars somewhere else and stay the heck away from our consumer tech!

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