China seethes as US chip controls threaten tech ambitions

News Summary

  • Chips are the center of a “technology war,” a Chinese scientist wrote in an official journal in February.China has its own chip foundries, but they supply only low-end processors used in autos and appliances.
  • But they cannot be manufactured without the precision technology of TSMC and other foreign foundries.Trump in 2019 crippled Huawei’s smartphone brand by blocking it from buying U.S. chips or other technology.
  • “You have to go to TSMC to do that.”China’s ruling party is trying to develop its own tool vendors, but researchers say it is far behind a global network spread across dozens of countries.Huawei said in a video on its website in December it was working on EUV technology.
  • Ford Motor Co. plans to use CATL technology in a $3.5 billion battery factory in Michigan.“China will strike back,” Jones said.
  • But creating a machine comparable to ASML’s might cost $5 billion and require a decade of research, according to industry experts.
  • “It won’t just be harsh words.”The conflict has prompted warnings the world might decouple, or split into separate spheres with incompatible technology standards that mean computers, smartphones and other products from one region wouldn’t work in others.
By JOE McDONALD AP Business WriterBEIJING (AP) Furious at U.S. efforts that cut off access to technology to make advanced computer chips, Chinas leaders appear to be struggling to figure out how [+8936 chars]