Sanctions: China: Criticism of planned smartphone testing by the USA

2023-09-08 13:29:55

Sanctions China: Criticism of planned smartphone testing by the USA

The Huawei logo. photo

© Robert Schlesinger/ZB/dpa

There have been sanctions against the smartphone manufacturer Huawei since 2019. But now the company has managed to get hold of the latest chipsets. There is a dispute between Washington and Beijing over the circumstances.

China has criticized the investigation of a new cell phone from the Chinese company Huawei by a US authority that wants to check its components for possible sanctions violations.

“We have always been against the politicization of trade and technology issues and the use of state power to unduly suppress Chinese companies,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in Beijing. According to the Bloomberg news agency, the reason behind the test is Washington’s concern that China could be further along in chip development than expected despite existing sanctions.

Bloomberg previously reported that the US Commerce Department is investigating an advanced chip said to be seven nanometers in size and made in China. The southern China-based company Huawei and the Chinese chip manufacturer SMIC are affected by US sanctions. Washington is trying to prevent key technologies and knowledge from moving to the Middle Kingdom. According to Bloomberg, this now raises the question of how China was able to get so far in chip development without these accesses and whether the sanctions are still having the desired effect.

“I would like to emphasize that sanctions, containment and suppression will not stop China’s development, but will only strengthen China’s determination and ability for self-reliance and scientific and technological innovation,” Mao Ning said on Friday.

The South Korean chip manufacturer SK Hynix had previously had the new Huawei smartphone Mate 60 Pro examined to see whether its products were installed in it. The company made it clear that it would no longer supply memory chips to Huawei. “SK Hynix has no longer done business with the company since the introduction of US restrictions against Huawei,” it said in a statement. Regarding the question of installing chips in the Huawei device, “we have started an investigation to find out more details.”

dpa