While China and the U.S. have resumed communication in various fields, Washington's containment of China in the high-tech sector is unchanged, with the US House of Representatives' China Committee intensifying its scrutiny of U.S. chipmakers with interests in China by asking CEOs of industry giants to testify before Congress. Chinese observers said that the U.S. may take more actions to crack down on China's high-tech sector, with semiconductors at the core, but more U.S. containment will only accelerate domestic replacements in China. The U.S. can no longer maintain an important market share in China with only low-end chips, an analyst said, urging the U.S. to meet China halfway to stabilize bilateral ties. The House of Representatives' China Committee has sent letters to Intel, Nvidia and Micron, summoning their Chief Executives to testify before Congress, the Financial Times reported. The move is a “shift” by the panel, which has not held hearings with CEOs from any industry since it was created, it said.
The U.S. Commerce Department's new chip export controls in October to the Netherlands' cancelation of export licenses for ASML under U.S. pressure, and now the U.S. House of Representatives' further scrutiny of U.S. chipmakers, all show that the suppression and containment of China by the U.S. in the high-tech sector remains unchanged, said Xiang Ligang, Director General of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance. “The Biden Administration may come up with more measures to crack down on China's high-tech sector in 2024, but more crackdowns will only prompt China to accelerate domestic replacements,” Xiang told the Global Times.
China's chip self-sufficiency rate may increase to about 30% to 35% as many domestic chipmakers have expanded manufacturing since the U.S. launched its tech war against China several years ago, Xiang said. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press conference recently that the U.S. behavior is “unilateral bullying without principles or bottom lines that essentially denies emerging markets and developing countries the right to a better life for their people,” and its selfish move will inevitably backfire.
The release of the Huawei Mate 60 series shows that Chinese companies are capable of making breakthroughs in key technologies, Xiang said. In addition, China's second phase of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Co, also known as “Big Fund II,” invested heavily in semiconductor design, equipment, manufacturing and key links in 2023. China is expected to increase its share of global semiconductor production in 2024, boosted by government funding and other incentives, industry association SEMI said in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report released on January 2, the Global Times reports.
Meanwhile, Chinese etching tools manufacturer Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment(AMEC) expects revenue last year to grow 32.1% from 2022 to reach CNY6.26 billion, as core technology breakthroughs enabled the firm to deploy more chip-making equipment to domestic semiconductor fabrication plants. The company said it recorded CNY8.36 billion worth of new orders, a 32.3% year-on-year increase. Net profit last year is projected to be between CNY1.7 billion and CNY1.85 billion, representing year-on-year growth of between 45% and 58%. Earlier, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Gerald Yin said the firm had devised a detailed road map to replace foreign-produced components with domestic parts amid tightened U.S. semiconductor sanctions, adding that 80% of U.S.-restricted components that AMEC used would be replaced with domestic parts by the end of last year. He expected the company to achieve a 100% replacement rate in 2024, the South China Morning Post adds.
