On the evening of March 31, China's National Cybersecurity Review Office issued an announcement saying it would "conduct cybersecurity reviews of Micron's products sold in China."
This news, belonging to the kind of "few words and big things", quickly attracted the attention of the Chinese people!
What company is Micron?
It is the leader in the memory chip industry in the United States and one of the global memory chip giants.
In the field of semiconductor chips, our companies have been suppressed by US sanctions!
Now, it's our turn to review American companies, what does it say?
Does it mean that our waist pole has hardened?
It used to be said that the United States "stuck our necks" in the field of chips, but now, the long-awaited counterattack has begun!
So, why are we censoring Micron?
The announcement makes it clear: safeguard national security.
Does the word "national security" look familiar?
Isn't this the reason why the United States has been suppressing our chip companies?
This is called, with the way of man, and also treat the body of others!
So what did Micron do to us?
In a word: it is behind the American "jam our chip neck"!
Speaking of Micron, just looking at the company name "Micron", according to the understanding of Chinese, it should mean "Light of America".
This company, in the field of memory chips, it really won glory for the United States: it is one of the world's largest manufacturers of memory chips.
For example, in 2018, its revenue in the Chinese market reached 17.357 billion US dollars, more than half of its total revenue!
It stands to reason that China is such an important market and makes so much money, from an economic point of view, there should always be more factories in China, right? This also reduces costs.
But Micron is amazing: In China, for a long time, it has only been willing to sell products and not invest much. Long-term assets, only $440 million.
Why is that?
Slowly everyone found out: it turned out that it had been wary of China for a long time!
Because it sees that China not only has a large market, but also a strong manufacturing industry, the chip industry will one day catch up with the United States, and when it really becomes a competitor, too many assets in China will be very passive!
Has it suppressed China's competitors?
Of course!
For example, against Fujian Jinhua, Micron sued it in California federal court.
The company was miserable by Micron.
Not only that, but it also has a very sinister trick: it is to spend a lot of effort to lobby the US government and use government power to suppress China's chip companies!
So, it's the black hand behind the one that "stuck our chip neck"!
How does it work?
It is to throw out the reason of "national security"!
It constantly says to the US government: We can't let China have an advanced semiconductor industry, if China does, our US national security will be threatened!
From 2018 to 2022, Micron submitted more than 170 lobbying proposals to the U.S. government, all targeting the chip industry, from trade and intellectual property to industrial support.
Our Yangtze River Storage and Changxin Storage are included in the "Entity List" of the United States, and last year's US export control also specifically mentioned memory chips, and controlled related DRAM memory chips and NAND flash memory chips.
Micron plays a set, but has a lot of historical experience, so it will be so clear about China and not soft!
At that time, Japan's chip industry was dominated by this company and laid down!
How did it organize Japan at that time?
One of the key tricks is to use "national security" to lobby the government with the aforementioned "national security" and use the government's hand to suppress competitors for it!
It started in the 1980s.
We know that in that era, it was the most glorious moment for Japanese chip companies!
Not only chips, but also the entire electrical appliance manufacturing is Japan's leading! In the field of chips, the United States was originally the leader, and later Japanese companies came out on top, and the momentum was compelling!
For example, in 1980, 30% of the global semiconductor market was captured by the Japanese, and in 1985, Japanese companies accounted for 50%.
Like the Intel we know, 1985 was a matter of life and death, and if IBM had not given it a sum of money at its most critical time, it might have collapsed.
What was the US government doing at that time, did it sanction others at every turn, as it is now?
At that time, the US government really did not move this mind!
One reason is that they blow the market economy every day, let the market do the things of the market, and the government cannot rescue and intervene in the market; Another reason is that the government stared at the Soviet Union every day to engage in the Cold War, and did not have time to watch Japan jump.
It was at this moment of crisis that Micron stepped forward!
And what it said made almost all semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley obey, so that the US government did not dare to be calm.
What to say?
The key is four words: national security!
It said: If the United States lags behind in semiconductor technology, in the future, we can only use Japanese products in weapons manufacturing!
However, when there is a war, what if Japan runs out of goods to us?
What if Japan supplied the USSR?
Therefore, if the government does not save us and allows the Japanese to kill us in the semiconductor field, it is sacrificing the national security of the United States!
In this way, the spine of the US government officials sweated!
Immediately joined forces to suppress the Japanese chip industry.
In the spring of 1986, Japan-made read-only memories were deemed dumped and heavily taxed!
In September 1986, the "US-Japan Semiconductor Agreement" was signed, and the Japanese government not only promised to open the domestic semiconductor market, but also guaranteed that within 5 years, foreign companies must be helped to gain 20% market share!
Not only that, but a 100% punitive tariff will be imposed on Japanese chips exported to the United States!
After adding tariffs, the United States is still next door to Japan, cultivating an opponent and fighting Japan exclusively!
At this moment, Micron jumped out again and became the protagonist!
Micron sold 64KB of DRAM chip technology to South Korea's Samsung at a very low price!
But for Japanese chips, the United States imposes 100% anti-dumping duties; But what about South Korea's chips, only 0.74%!
Japan's highlight moment was so punched in the face by the United States, and South Korea was stabbed in the back.
What about Micron?
In the 3 years from 1986 to 1988, its DRAM sales increased tenfold!
Micron invented the use of "national security" reasons to suppress competitors, is this trick shady enough?
Therefore, American chip companies with such a bad record are now beginning to play "national security" tricks against us, should we review it?
Of course review!
Moreover, this counterattack must also take advantage of its weakest time!
According to the latest quarterly financial report released by Micron, the revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2023 was $3.693 billion, a sharp drop of 52.6% compared with the same period last year, and the net loss was as high as $2.312 billion, the worst in history!
Another reason for choosing this time to investigate it is that the Chinese market is not short of memory chips!
Moreover, Chinese memory chip companies are catching up!
At present, from the perspective of the current situation of chip industry research and development, although the United States and Europe occupy the first-mover advantage in the high-end field, the market share below 14 nm is not large, and the market share above 14 nm accounts for more than 70%, and China is completely independent and controllable in this field!
Therefore, in the field of chips to fight back, we have full confidence!
The counterattack has begun, once there is a new breakthrough in technology, at that time, the name "Micron" may have another explanation: in the final battlefield of the chip, the counterattack we launched will make the US imperialism die!