The U.S.’s semiconductor technology blockade against China has never been relaxed, and may even be tightened. Recently, a group of U.S. lawmakers wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, calling for strengthening export restrictions on China’s chip wafer manufacturing equipment (WFE). They even want to restrict the sale of almost all chip-making equipment to China except those that can be manufactured domestically.
The lawmakers also asked the United States to work with allies to ensure they implement similar export bans against China.
Currently, U.S. companies need to obtain an export license to export WFE equipment to China, including 14nm/16nm process logic chips, 18nm-level process DRAM memory chips, and 128+ layer 3D NAND flash memory chips.
However, companies from other countries outside the United States can export these equipment to entities in China that do not nominally produce the above-mentioned semiconductor products.
U.S. lawmakers believe that nowThere are "loopholes" in China's control policy against China, because some key equipment produced by non-U.S. companies, including advanced photolithography, precision etching and other equipment, will only be restricted when exported to specific Chinese entities and can be completely bypassed.
They are also worried that China can obtain relevant parts and components, which can not only be used to maintain existing equipment, but can even be used for reverse engineering. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen export control of parts and components and strictly prevent China from developing local substitutions.
In addition, WFE equipment maintenance services are also areas that require stricter control.
The letter concluded: "The window to ensure U.S. semiconductor dominance is narrowing. We must stand ready to cooperate to ensure that our export control mechanisms can meet this challenge."
