All of the content stated in this article is based on reliable sources of information, which are repeated at the end of the article
Since August 9, 2022, when U.S. President Joe Biden officially signed the "chip sanctions" bill, the "chip war" between China and the United States has lasted for nearly two years.
In this war without gunpowder, the United States not only launched chip sanctions against China, but also called on Japan, South Korea and other countries to restrict the development of "Chinese chips", so the mainland can be said to be suffering from the enemy.
However, just when the outside world thought that this "Sino-US chip war" would continue for a long time, the United States actually softened first!
Why is that? Could it be that the Chinese government's first "anti-sanctions" against U.S. semiconductor companies last year has worked?
After China's chips are expected to achieve "lane change overtaking", the United States finally can't sit still?
Take the lead in the United States chip companies that can't bear it
The "CHIPS Sanctions" bill signed by Biden in 2022 is officially known as the CHIPS and Science Act, because the bill is, from a certain point of view, almost tailor-made for China.
Especially in terms of restricting the export of advanced semiconductors and computers to China by American chip companies, the United States almost did not write the words "sanctions against China" into the bill, so the outside world calls it the "chip sanctions" bill.
There is no doubt that this move by the United States has indeed had a great impact on the mainland's semiconductor industry, especially technology companies like Huawei, which was previously highly dependent on American chips.
After all, in 2018, the self-sufficiency rate of China's chips was only 5%, which means that 95% of China's chips are highly dependent on imports, of which they are mainly imported from the United States, South Korea and Japan.
It can also be seen that such a "chip war" led by the United States and actively responded to by South Korea, Japan and other countries has indeed had a great impact on China.
But for the United States, while sanctioning China in the chip field, it is also indirectly sanctioning senior chip manufacturing companies in the United States, after all, China can be said to be the largest customer of these chip companies, or even one of them.
According to relevant data, before the promulgation of the "chip sanctions" bill, China imported hundreds of billions of dollars of chips from the United States alone every year.
However, in recent years, this data has fallen exponentially, and after losing the Chinese market, it is fatal for world-famous chip companies such as Nvidia and Intel, not to mention those small companies in the United States.
Source: CCTV News 2024-05-09 Report on "Intel Corporation Says U.S. Government's Export Restrictions on China Will Hit Its Sales Revenue".
Reuters reported on May 8 that since the U.S. government canceled the licenses of some companies to export chips to Chinese companies, Intel Corporation, a leading company in the chip field, said on the same day: export restrictions to China will hit its sales revenue!
However, for the U.S. government, even if the "chip sanctions" bill is an act of "hurting the enemy by 1,000 and harming 800 by itself", as long as it can achieve the purpose of restricting China's development, it is worth it in the eyes of the United States.
But is that really the case? Has the U.S. really achieved its goal of sanctioning China?
There are pros and cons to everything, and it is precisely because the United States is pressing step by step in the field of chips that it has stimulated the process of independent research and development of chips in the mainland.
Take Huawei, which has been comprehensively suppressed and blocked by the United States, not only did not give in and compromise, but increased investment and support for independent research and development of chips.
Huawei's HiSilicon, one of China's largest chip design companies, has successfully acquired its own Kirin series chips and Ascend series chips after a series of R&D.
In addition to Huawei, China's major enterprises have also started the research and development of "China Chip", and in just 5 years, the mainland has achieved very outstanding results in domestic chips.
"Chinese cores" such as the Loongson series and the soul core series have been widely praised at home and abroad, and even our Beidou navigation satellites use our domestic chips.
As China's chips gradually become self-sufficient, and even can be exported overseas, many chip companies in the United States finally can't bear it!
You must know that in 2023 alone, the number of Chinese chips imported will decrease by hundreds of billions, and this data is still increasing.
That is to say, with the development of time, after China's chips are completely self-sufficient, American chip companies will forever lose China, the largest market.
Not only that, at that time, after the development of "China Chip" technology matured, it would even seize the market share of American companies around the world.
At that time, these chip companies that have been forcibly sanctioned by the US government against China will face such an extremely dangerous situation: not only lose their largest customers, but also may "force out" one of their biggest competitors.
Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia
Therefore, Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia, warned the US government in public in an interview with the media:
"If we are deprived of the Chinese market, we have no emergency measures, there is no other China (in the world), there is only one China."
In the eyes of many people, the "chip sanctions" bill signed by the Biden administration is not the so-called "wounding the enemy 1,000 and losing 800" at all, and it is very good to be able to achieve "100 injuries to the enemy and 8,000 self-damage".
After all, China has not only achieved "lane change overtaking" in the field of chips, but also imposed counter-sanctions on American chip companies!
China Opens "Reverse Sanctions"?
In March 2023, China's Cyber Security Review Office conducted a cybersecurity review of Micron's products sold in China.
The final result of the review was that the relevant authorities believed that the company's exports of chips and other products to China were at certain risk, so Micron's products would be subject to strict regulations in China.
Source: Straits Consumer News 2023-05-25 on "China bans Micron chips? Foreign media are boiling, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country: for the sake of national security".
It is important to know that Micron of the United States is one of the world's largest manufacturers of semiconductor storage and imaging products, and China has always been a major exporter to the company.
Therefore, after learning that China would control it, the foreign media instantly fried the pot and began to continuously hype that China has begun "reverse sanctions", which will ban Micron chips from entering the Chinese market.
Regarding China's control of Micron, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded: This is a necessary measure to safeguard national security.
In other words, Micron's chips and other products exported to China do have problems, and the problem is not small, which has involved our national security, otherwise the mainland would not deliberately target this company.
But even so, many US media with ulterior motives continue to proclaim that this is a "retaliatory measure" taken by China after being sanctioned by the United States.
This point of view is undoubtedly wrong, first of all, it is not us who are at a loss for now, it should be those chip companies in the United States.
After all, the mainland has not only achieved self-sufficiency in the field of chips, but also "China Chip" may usher in the opportunity to change lanes and overtake!
The "Chinese core" of lane change and overtaking
While the United States is still struggling to study how to sanction China, China's development in the field of chips has made many breakthroughs.
The major breakthrough achieved by Continental in the field of chips is the development of the world's first black technology of "glass chip".
The successful research and development of this technology not only enables "China Chip" to have higher performance, but also reduces the chip manufacturing cost by about 50%.
This kind of technology that is enough to help Chinese chips change lanes and overtake is the third-generation "glass perforation technology" that uses glass silicon crystals instead of traditional silicon wafers.
Previously, because the high-end manufacturing technology of silicon wafers has always been firmly in the hands of the United States, South Korea and other countries, 95% of the silicon wafers in China's chip manufacturing field are extremely dependent on imports.
You must know that silicon wafers are the most basic materials for manufacturing chips, and before the mainland's "glass chip" technology achieves a breakthrough, if you want to import silicon wafers, you must look at the "face" of the United States.
So in the face of the joint technology blockade of the United States and other countries, Chinese scientists decided to change lanes and overtake, and finally after continuous research and development day and night, the third generation of "glass perforation technology" has made Chinese chips out of a different path.
The successful research and development of this technology has broken the traditional chip manufacturing process based on silicon wafers, and the effect of silicon wafers can be achieved with glass alone, so chips manufactured by this technology are also called "glass chips".
It is believed that with the continuous development of this technology, it is a matter of time before "China Chip" changes lanes and overtakes, and the "chip sanctions" imposed by the United States on China will be self-defeating.
In fact, the "chip war" between China and the United States is just a microcosm of the current global scientific and technological competition.
For example, most of the medical devices such as MRI machines in hospitals need to be imported from abroad at high prices.
For example, an MRI machine has to start at least 35 million yuan, and only a handful of companies in the world can manufacture it, so it will form a high degree of monopoly, which is also one of the main reasons for the high cost of examination in our hospital.
However, with the continuous development of China, many foreign monopoly technologies have been broken by the mainland, including nuclear magnetic resonance machines, which means that the cost of medical treatment for ordinary people will be greatly reduced in the future.
As the Chinese government and enterprises are increasing R&D investment to promote scientific and technological innovation and industrial upgrading, it is believed that the mainland will be able to make great progress in the development of major high-tech fields.
Key Sources:
1. The original article was published on CCTV News on May 9, 2024 on "Intel Corporation said that the US government's export restrictions on China will hit its sales revenue".
2. The original article was published on the overseas website on October 09, 2022 Regarding the report on "The United States restricts chip exports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responds: it will only block itself and eat itself".
3. The original article was published in the Straits Consumer News on May 25, 2023 on "China bans Micron chips? Foreign media are boiling, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country: for the sake of national security".