Facing the ‘Dark Skies and Mountainous Terrain’ of American Technological Hegemony, Our Microchip Industry Needs To Find a Glimmer of Hope That Will ‘Shine the Path Forward’

Recently, the Department of Commerce increased export controls on integrated circuits to China and adjusted the “unverified list” of export controls. In a vain attempt to protect its leading position and weaken or even eliminate our country’s high-end integrated circuits industry and ability for technological innovation, the United States has in recent years imposed wave after wave of export controls, cut off the supply of microchips, passed the CHIPS and Science Act, pursued the Chip 4 Alliance as well as other legal and diplomatic methods, and unceasingly expanded the scope of attack against China’s microchip industry.

In its attempt to establish microchip hegemony, the United States uses the false pretense of security guarantees while it is in fact following a policy of suppression and containment. America is targeting our semiconductor industry through a series of sanctions that seriously violates international rules and wreaks havoc on the world economic order, thereby politicizing and weaponizing a benign technological competition. To protect its technological hegemony, America is even willing to hurt the interests of its own businesses and allies. The interests of all nations are deeply embedded in the semiconductor industry since it requires one of the highest degrees of cooperation in the globalized division of labor. America’s blockage of technology to China is no different than an insect isolating itself in a cocoon; every one of America’s allies can see clearly that America’s private interests are behind its technological hegemony, and they will be resolute in moving toward establishing the autonomous technological innovation of their respective countries.

General Secretary Xi Jinping’s congratulatory letter to the International Forum on Resilient and Stable Industrial and Supply Chains, which took place on Sept. 19, stated, “Maintaining the resilience and stability of global industrial and supply chains is a vital guarantee for promoting the development of the world economy and serves the common interests of people globally.” Currently, the increased downward pressure on the world economy, the tiring of global consumption, and the low revenues and profits of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Samsung, Micron Technology and other leaders of the microchip industry prove that the global semiconductor industry is moving into a downward cycle. In this environment, we call for the continued deepening of international cooperation in the semiconductor industry, the maintenance of properties of public goods in the industrial and supply chains, the shared handling of the industry’s “winter,” and the promotion of the gains of technological development to better serve the peoples of all countries.

At present, China’s technological specialists and accumulation of knowledge are already at a first-class level. The attempt by the United States to unilaterally sanction and destroy an entire industry in China cannot possibly succeed. Facing the “dark skies and mountainous terrain” of American technological hegemony, our country should take further steps to continue legally cooperating with other countries. “In the midst of crisis appears opportunity, and in change novelty.” China should push the microchip industry toward finding that glimmer of hope that will shine the light forward.