US needs to change its 'two faced' policy towards China
By Rhod Mackenzie
As updated rules restricting the export of US chip-making equipment to China is reportedly in the final stages of review, Chinese analyst said on Friday that the US should show some sincerity if it desires the improving of relations with China and abandon its two-faced approach as its current year long technology restrictions on China are proving to have a limited impact.
According to a Reuters report on Friday, US officials have warned China in recent weeks that rules restricting shipments of semiconductor equipment and advanced artificial intelligence chips to China would be updated this month. The updates would add restrictions and close some loopholes to the rules first unveiled on 7 October 2022, the sources said.
The policy coincides with the one-year anniversary of the US government's escalating crackdown on China's micro chip industry, and comes after Chinese technology giant Huawei defied US sanctions by officially launching its Huawei Mate 60 series and other high-end products.
"The US restrictions have proved to be limited in their effects, as in recent years, the containment has instead inspired our country to solve the bottleneck problems in some relevant areas and accelerate the pace of our self-reliance," Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.
Wang noted that the impact of further US sanctions on China's related industries is expected to be futile, as China will gradually realise the localisation of these products.
The reports of an advanced chip in Huawei Technologies' latest smartphone are "incredibly troubling", the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, according to a Fortune report on Friday. This comes after the US government launched an official investigation into the advanced chip made in China that is used in Huawei Technologies' latest smartphone.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed the country's firm opposition to the reported US investigation into advanced Chinese chips, noting that sanctions, containment and crackdowns will not stop China's development, but will only strengthen China's determination and ability to be self-reliant and technologically innovative.
"The release of Huawei's [latest] phone has caused some irritation in the US, and the further intensification of the crackdown on China reinforces the ineffectiveness of the previous [US] policy," Ma Jihua, a Beijing-based senior industry analyst, told the Global Times on Friday.
No matter how tough the US policy is on China is, it will not achieve the results they want to achieve because the chip industry chain is a product of globalisation and cannot be manipulated by the US side, Ma said.
Wang said that the US is having an election in 2024, and in this context the Biden administration needs to further relax relations with China to better control their differences.
"However, although the US wants a thaw relations with China, it will introduce correspondingly tougher policies before each negotiation to increase its bargaining power," Ma said.
There is still a long way to go to stabilise and improve relations between the world's two largest economies, and the key is to follow the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation to find a balanced way for both sides to get along in the new era, the Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said on 28 September, according to a post on the Chinese Embassy in the US website on Wednesday.
