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US reportedly warns China on chipmaking tool export curb update

Jingyue Hsiao, DIGITIMES Asia, Taipei 0

Credit: AFP

As the anniversary of the US's export ban against China approaches, the White House is reportedly expected to impose stricter curbs on advanced technologies in early October, which the US had warned China.

Reuters quoted an unnamed US government official saying that the Biden administration planned to update the export curbs against China unveiled on October 7, 2022, expanding the restrictions on more chipmaking tools in early October this year, adding that the US officials had talked about it with their Chinese counterparts in recent weeks. Meanwhile, US may also target advanced packaging against China.

As the APEC summit scheduled for November in San Francisco looms, the US has hoped for a possible meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. However, the Chinese government has not officially confirmed Xi's attendance at the APEC summit.

According to Reuters, the US warned about the forthcoming update of export bans to China in advance, aiming to prevent deterioration in bilateral relations ahead of the potential summit.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that US senators are going to visit China and meet with Xi, and sources told Bloomberg that they may raise the issue of China's ban on Micron's products used in critical information infrastructures.

US Senator Mike Crapo told Bloomberg that the visit to China is to engage with them. The trip follows similar moves by US senior officials to visit China, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

After the US ban on semiconductor equipment exported to China in October, Japan and the Netherlands joined the ranks of imposing curbs against China, leading to a surge in imports of chipmaking tools in the past months by China. It remains to be seen whether the rumored update on export bans on chipmaking tools may further impact US-based providers, such as Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA. Meanwhile, Korean media reported that China-based semiconductor companies had localized sourcing of about 40% of chipmaking tools.