WASHINGTON — In conversations with U.S. officials this spring, senior Biden administration officials revealed aggressive plans to counter China’s military’s rapid technological advances.
Intelligence agencies reported that China was using supercomputing and artificial intelligence to develop stealth and hypersonic weapon systems to try to decipher the US government’s most encrypted messages. For months, government officials debated what could be done to impede the country’s progress.
The Biden administration will seek to use US influence over global technology and supply chains to cut off China’s access to advanced chips and the chip-making tools needed to boost its capabilities. The goal was to leave Chinese entities that contributed to the potential threat far behind their US and allied competitors.
This effort is no less than what Americans did to Soviet industry during the Cold War, and this year the United States tested powerful economic tools against Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine, while China It gained momentum because it broke development barriers. The Russian offensive and Beijing’s military actions have also made the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan seem real to US officials.
The administration’s concerns over China’s tech ambitions culminated last week with the U.S. government’s announcement of the toughest restrictions on technology exports to China in decades. Ripple into global commerce It could frustrate other governments and companies outside of China.
In Wednesday’s speech on the administration’s National Security Strategy, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke of “small yards, high fences” for critical technology.
“Fundamental technology chokepoints must be within that yard and fences must be high. because you shouldn’t,” he said.
This account of how President Biden and his aides decided to launch a new global campaign against China includes previously unreported details, including 20 incumbents and former Based on interviews with government officials and industry executives. Most spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations.
The move is particularly notable given that the Biden administration has preferred to announce policies that work with allies to counter rival powers, such as the sanctions against Russia.
With China, the administration has spent months in talks with allies, including the Dutch, Japanese, South Korean, Israeli and British governments, trying to persuade some of them to issue restrictions alongside the United States.
But some of these governments are hesitant to cut off vital trade with China, one of the world’s largest technology markets.So the Biden administration decided to act alonewithout official action from the allies.
More on Asia-U.S. relations
Gregory C. Allen, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the move, which came after consultations with allies, was “fundamentally unilateral.” rice field.
“By weaponizing its position as a dominant chokepoint in the global semiconductor value chain, the United States wields technological and geopolitical power on an incredible scale,” he said. . wrote in the analysis.
A series of restrictions will allow the administration to cut China off from certain advanced chips made by U.S. and foreign companies that use U.S. technology.
US officials described the decision to push forward with export controls as a show of leadership. Some allies wanted to impose similar measures but feared retaliation from China, so Washington’s rules involving foreign companies did the hard work for them, they said. Said.
Other rules prohibit U.S. companies from selling the equipment and components needed to manufacture advanced chips to Chinese companies, and prevent U.S. and U.S. companies from supplying state-of-the-art chip factories in China with software updates and other services. It is prohibited to provide
This measure does not directly restrict foreign semiconductor manufacturers from selling their products to China. But experts said the lack of U.S. facilities would most likely prevent China’s emerging industries from making advanced chips. Ultimately, however, its influence may wane as China develops significant production technologies of its own.
Some businesses are frustrated by the idea of losing sales in a lucrative market. Japan’s Tokyo Electron executives on a conference call with investors in August The company said it was ‘extremely concerned’ That restriction could prevent Chinese customers from producing chips. ASML, a Dutch equipment manufacturer, expressed criticism.
Chinese officials said the US restrictions were an important step aimed at hampering the country’s development. The move could have far-reaching ramifications, such as limiting advances in the artificial intelligence that drives self-driving cars, video recommendation algorithms and gene sequencing, as well as crushing China’s chip-making industry.
China can respond by punishing foreign companies doing business there. And the way Washington is imposing its rules could strain U.S. alliances, some experts say.
“Sanctions that pit the United States against allies and partners today will weaken their effectiveness and make it more difficult to involve broad coalitions of nations in U.S. deterrence,” said Cornell University professor Jessica Cheng Weiss. and a Recent State Department Officials.
Others argue that the move didn’t come quickly enough. He warned that he was supporting China’s efforts to
Last October, the Intelligence Community started Emphasizing risk It was raised by China’s advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors at meetings with industry and government officials.
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Sullivan and other officials have begun to curb sales of the semiconductor technology, according to current and former officials and people familiar with the discussions.
But some officials, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and her deputies, wanted to secure allied cooperation first. At a conference from late last year, they argued that without doing much to stop Chinese companies from buying key technology from foreign competitors, the United States would act unilaterally to protect its own companies. He said there was a risk of harm.
diplomatic push
The Trump administration has taken some aggressive actions against Chinese technology, including banning international shipments to Huawei, but has launched a quiet diplomacy on semiconductor equipment. U.S. officials spoke with officials in Japan and the Netherlands, countries where the company makes critical tools. export restrictions To China, Matthew Pottinger said Deputy National Security Advisor in the Trump administration.
Officials in the Biden administration have continued these talks, but some negotiations have stalled.For months, U.S. authorities persuade the Dutch Prevent the sale of ASML old lithography machine I made an offer to a Chinese semiconductor company, but they rejected it.
U.S. officials have negotiated separately with South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and the United Kingdom to limit the sale and design of chips.
Outside diplomacy, there is growing evidence that the tools the US has used to limit access to Chinese technology are seriously flawed.United States under President Donald J. Trump Add hundreds of companies On the so-called Entity List, which prohibited American companies from selling sensitive products without a license.
But because each list was associated with a specific business name and address, circumventing the restrictions was relatively easy, said Ivan Canapacy, former head of the National Security Council’s China Bureau.
Current and former U.S. officials suspect the Chinese military and previously sanctioned Chinese companies, including Huawei, sought to gain access to restricted technology. through front companiesHuawei declined to comment.
Huawei may soon face additional restrictions. The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote in the coming weeks on a rule blocking approval of new Huawei equipment in the United States over national security concerns.
Biden officials also said the Trump administration-issued restrictions on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., a major Chinese chipmaker known as SMIC, have been watered down by the industry and continued to sell too many. A person familiar with the matter said he believes he is forgiving.
Sullivan said in a March phone call with top U.S. semiconductor equipment makers that the U.S. was no longer satisfied with the status quo with China and was trying to freeze Chinese technology. An official familiar with the discussion said.
Sullivan, who answered the phone with Raimondo and Brian Deeds, director of the National Economic Council, told executives at KLA, Applied Materials and Lam Research to limit the shipment of equipment to China. He said the rules to do so would be made to allies. said the executive.
In a statement, the National Security Council said the move “is consistent with the message it conveyed to U.S. executives, as it only controls tools made by U.S. companies that have no foreign competitors.” Stated.
Breakthrough in China
As negotiations with allied governments continued, experts from the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, and State spent months combing through spreadsheets listing dozens of semiconductor tools made by U.S. companies, using advanced Which can be used for chip production, Japanese and Dutch companies have produced comparable equipment.
Then, in July, we received some surprising news. Reports have emerged that SMIC has cleared a major technical hurdle and produced a semiconductor that rivals Taiwan’s intricate chips.
The achievement sparked outbursts of frustration at the White House and the Capitol against US efforts to curb China’s technological progress.
The Biden administration took action in August to crack down on China’s semiconductor industry, sending letters to equipment makers and chip makers banning them from selling certain products to China.
Last week, the administration issued rules that apply globally.
companies immediately started to stop shipping to China. However, U.S. officials said they would issue licenses on a case-by-case basis to allow some non-Chinese companies to continue supplying support and components to Chinese facilities. Intel, TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix said they received temporary exemptions from the rule.
Pottinger said the regulation could be the beginning of a wider attack by the US government.
“The Biden administration understands that it is not enough for America to run faster. “This marks a serious evolution in the administration’s mindset.”
Julian Burns When David McCabe contributed to the report.