State Of The Union
"The Major Hole In Biden And Kerry’s Green Scheme"
Story by Andrew Sanders
16 DECEMBER 2023
John Kerry, the US climate envoy, advocated for a global ban on new coal power plants and announced the US joining an alliance against coal-generated electricity.
However, China, a major coal plant builder, won’t be part of this alliance.
Critics argue that the Paris Agreement, which Kerry helped architect, unfairly benefits China and damages the US economy.
According to the Washington Examiner, “When the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, China was the world’s second-largest economy and largest carbon emitter.”
“Since then, China has added 233 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity — 27% more than the entire U.S. coal fleet."
"Last year alone, it permitted two coal plants each and every week,” the outlet explained.
They claim that China takes advantage of international frameworks to prioritize economic prosperity over climate change.
According to the report, “That’s why the Senate unanimously adopted an amendment instructing the administration to begin the process of removing China from the ranks of developing countries in the Montreal Protocol.”
“Shamefully, instead of pushing back against Chinese duplicity, the Biden administration has been busy undermining the all-of-the-above energy strategy that made America an energy superpower,” it continued.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s energy policies are criticized for raising prices and undermining US security.
There is a call for an energy policy promoting American abundance and ending China’s status as a developing country.
The administration is accused of shifting the US towards energy dependence on China, Russia, and OPEC.
China’s actions are seen as exploiting the administration’s climate efforts, and there are calls for non-negotiable consequences for China’s behavior.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/th ... 2efe&ei=10
CHINA
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"US wants to contain China's chip industry. This startup shows it won't be easy"
By John Shiffman and Joshua Schneyer
December 29, 2023
WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Last year, a veteran Silicon Valley software executive took the helm of a startup in his native China, company records show.
The startup told potential investors it would sell microchip design software that is mostly available from just a handful of large Western companies.
The coveted and highly specialized software tool, known by its initials of OPC, is used in the design of many microchips and is crucial to the design of advanced chips.
The production of advanced chips is one of the most contentious technological struggles now dividing the United States and China as they vie for economic and military supremacy.
Washington is trying to curb China's access to sensitive microchip design tools.
The strategy behind the startup, dubbed SEIDA, shows why that containment effort is so challenging.
Before becoming chief executive of SEIDA, Liguo "Recoo" Zhang had lived in the United States long enough to secure permanent residency and purchase a Silicon Valley home, according to people familiar with his career and public records reviewed by Reuters.
He was employed by Siemens EDA, a U.S. unit of German industrial giant Siemens AG that dominates the market in China for the very technology SEIDA told investors it planned to sell there.
At least three other Chinese-born colleagues from Siemens EDA joined Zhang at SEIDA.
In a 2022 business-plan presentation prepared for investors, SEIDA called OPC "indispensable technology" and said it would offer the tool by early 2024.
A Chinese version of the product, SEIDA said, would "break through the foreign monopoly," helping China become self-reliant in chip technology.
SEIDA's ultimate goal, according to one slide: "Become OPC leader in the world."
The pitch attracted powerful Chinese investors.
One backer, recent corporate filings reviewed by Reuters show, is an investment arm of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, or SMIC.
The state-backed, Shanghai-based company is China's leading maker of microchips.
U.S. companies are restricted by Washington from providing technology to SMIC without a special license because its alleged work with China's military is considered a threat to American national security.
SMIC didn't respond to Reuters' requests for comment about the investment or the U.S. restrictions.
On a recent visit to SEIDA's headquarters in Hangzhou, in eastern China, a receptionist told Reuters that Zhang wasn't available for an interview.
In an email after the visit, Peilun "Allen" Chang, SEIDA's chief operating officer, said the prospectus reviewed by Reuters is "obsolete."
The company's objectives have evolved, he wrote, adding that its backers are primarily "private institutions and individuals."
Chang declined to specify how much capital SEIDA has raised or what products it now aims to pursue, saying its business plan remains "under continuous evaluation."
Siemens EDA, in a statement, confirmed Zhang's departure and that of three other colleagues.
The company said it considers SEIDA "a potential competitor" but declined to comment further.
Reuters couldn't determine whether SEIDA has progressed toward selling OPC, short for optical proximity correction.
The software is commonly employed for the design of many microchips and is part of a broader set of technologies known as electronic design automation, or EDA.
The tools can help design chips that could advance strategic new technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing and hypersonic flight.
Since SEIDA's launch in October 2021, the U.S. government has increased efforts to curb China's access to EDA tools, developed and sold mostly by American companies.
Through export controls and other restrictions, Washington aims to prevent China from obtaining know-how that could allow it to match microchip advances by the United States and its allies, including Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by China and the world's leading chip manufacturer.
In email exchanges with Reuters, Chang said U.S. restrictions were one of the reasons Zhang and his colleagues left Siemens EDA for SEIDA to begin with.
The restrictions, he wrote, limited their business opportunities at Siemens EDA, "diminishing scope for career advancement and involvement in key projects."
SEIDA adheres to U.S. and Chinese rules, Chang added.
Neither SEIDA nor its executives have been accused of wrongdoing.
And Reuters has no evidence SEIDA is using knowledge or technology that could be considered proprietary by Siemens EDA or others.
Chang said SEIDA has "a stringent vetting process…ensuring no infringement upon the intellectual property of others."
Experts in the sector, and people familiar with efforts by Beijing to outmaneuver U.S. curbs on technology transfer, say SEIDA's launch follows a pattern of Chinese companies building upon foreign know-how.
Even if the SEIDA executives didn't take property from their previous employer, the technologies involved are so complex that only years of experience with existing purveyors would allow them to offer similar products.
"Developing OPC from scratch without access to any existing intellectual property would be challenging in this timeframe, to say the least," said Jan-Peter Kleinhans, director of technology and geopolitics at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, a Berlin think tank where he has researched China's market for EDA tools.
The story of SEIDA, which hasn't been previously reported, illustrates the challenges the West faces in thwarting Chinese development of advanced microchip technology.
Despite Washington's efforts to slow China's acquisition of chip technology, Beijing is rushing to foster domestic development, attract expert expatriates to come home and overcome its lag in the sector.
A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said in a statement that the United States "abuses export control measures" and "applies illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction to Chinese companies."
China, the spokesperson added, has adopted laws to protect intellectual property and "complies with internationally accepted rules."
Technological advances in China, the statement continued, "are not the result of theft, nor of robbery, but are the result of Chinese people's ingenuity and hard work."
American officials have repeatedly said that Chinese efforts to secure Western technology pose one of the biggest long-term threats to the economy and security of the United States.
They have expressed particular concern about China's ability to employ advanced chips, and the powerful processors they enable, for its fast-growing military.
"At no point have export controls been more central to our national security," Matthew Axelrod, assistant U.S. commerce secretary for export enforcement, said at a Congressional hearing in Washington this month.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said such concerns reflect "a Cold War and hegemonic mentality."
While export rules may delay Beijing's progress, industry experts say, they are unlikely to stunt China's development of chip technology.
"The U.S. is lying across the tracks in an effort to stop the Chinese, but it is just going to become a speed bump," said Michael Bruck, a former general manager in China for chipmaker Intel Corp.
"It will push China to be more independent."
China's government has made its drive for more sophisticated chips a centerpiece of its strategic plans.
Last year, after Washington announced new restrictions, Beijing said the government would spend $143 billion to spur China's domestic chip sector.
Through a separate program known as "Thousand Talents," the government offers employment, housing, and other incentives for Chinese experts who return from science and tech jobs abroad.
The program, in existence for more than a decade, has been criticized by Washington because it is viewed by some as a mechanism for China to illegally obtain intellectual property from abroad.
Last May, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a California-based software engineer on trade secrets charges.
In an FBI affidavit related to the case, investigators said the engineer, Liming Li, had stolen millions of files from two unidentified U.S. employers.
One of the employers, the affidavit shows, found a folder on Li's laptop containing documents related to "Thousand Talents."
The pilfered company files, the FBI alleged, included unspecified materials related to "national security, nuclear nonproliferation and anti-terrorism."
Li has pleaded not guilty.
His attorney, Daniel Olmos, declined to comment.
Reuters this year has chronicled the race between the West and China for dominance in sectors ranging from killer robots to undersea cables to encryption of digital communications.
The struggle for primacy in chipmaking will help determine who triumphs in these technologies and others that will become available once faster processors are developed to enable them.
"THE LIMITS OF PHYSICS"
Since the 1950s, America's pioneering of chip technology played a major role in the country's creation of the world's largest economy, powerful high-tech and financial sectors, and a thus-far unparalleled military.
But China's fast economic growth, and its stated ambition to assert its place as a global power, is now challenging that dominance.
In the Cold War, Washington blocked exports of some raw materials that Eastern Bloc countries could have used to develop weaponry.
At the time, such measures succeeded because countries behind the Iron Curtain were already economically isolated.
Now, though, globalization has made most industries far more interconnected.
Semiconductors, an approximately $600 billion a year business, are no exception.
From raw materials to design to assembly, chips are a global industry.
"The United States is not going to be able to cut the Chinese off like we did the Soviets," said James Andrew Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, or CSIS, a Washington think tank.
An ambition both countries share is self-reliance in the manufacture of advanced microchips.
Although the United States still leads in many of the technologies needed to design chips, most of the actual printing and assembly happens in Asia.
The United States relies heavily on South Korea for memory chips and Taiwan for logic chips.
Memory chips store and retrieve information and logic chips process data and execute instructions.
Last year, the United States approved nearly $53 billion for "CHIPS for America," a program, administered by the Commerce Department, that offers financial incentives to companies that can increase domestic production.
Recipients of the incentives are restricted from sharing sensitive technologies with China and other countries not allied with the United States.
Among the challenges for China to create more advanced chips is access to EDA tools, such as the OPC software touted by SEIDA in early marketing.
Producing the fastest, most capable chips and circuit boards involves designing and printing them with billions of ever-smaller transistors.
To achieve such microscopic connections, EDA helps lay out and verify the design of these circuits and simulate how they'll perform under real-world conditions.
But EDA tools require intense processing power.
So specialized is the technology that some advances are marketed as scientific breakthroughs.
NVIDIA Corp, the California-based company that is the leading supplier of chips for artificial intelligence, in March said recent advances in OPC technology would help it push the semiconductor industry "to the limits of physics."
Despite U.S. export controls, China is making advances.
In 2019, the Commerce Department placed Huawei Technologies Co, the Chinese telecommunications giant, on its list of companies that can't buy U.S. technologies unless the vendor obtains a special license.
As with SMIC, blacklisted by the department a year later, the U.S. cited national security concerns.
"Our export controls on China are designed to massively slow down technology acquisition," Thea D. Rozman Kendler, assistant commerce secretary for export administration, said at the recent Congressional hearing.
Still, Huawei in August introduced a new 5G smartphone with a sophisticated, seven-nanometer chip manufactured by SMIC.
The phone, unveiled while U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was visiting China, was announced to great fanfare.
The Commerce Department later said it is investigating whether the two companies relied on restricted U.S. technologies to develop the chip.
Huawei declined to comment.
Proving the source of some technologies can be challenging.
Many semiconductor advances build upon existing intellectual property.
And the turnover of personnel within the industry, especially across international borders, can make it difficult to investigate export violations or pursue claims of intellectual property theft.
"You can't really control what's in people's brains with any export controls," said Lewis of CSIS.
Alon Raphael, chief executive of a California company that sells a tool to detect semiconductor defects, said he learned that lesson the hard way.
Until 2020, he said, FemtoMetrix Inc, was the sole supplier of the technology, which it spent a decade developing.
But late that year, Raphael said, Chongji Huang, a key employee, resigned and emerged later in China with a Shanghai-based startup that offers a similar product.
"I had heard these kinds of stories," Raphael told Reuters, "but I said to myself, 'No, not that guy, he's my friend.'"
Late last year, FemtoMetrix filed suit in California against the startup.
Robert Shwarts, an attorney representing Huang and his startup, Weichong Semiconductor Group, told Reuters that neither Huang nor the startup took anything from FemtoMetrix, nor did they violate any trade secrets.
"ENABLE CHIP SUCCESS"
SEIDA, the startup managed by Siemens EDA veterans, is one of many Chinese tech startups founded in recent years to meet Beijing’s call for a stronger domestic semiconductor industry.
The proliferation can be hard to track.
Recent changes to Chinese regulations restrict access to company registries.
Reuters couldn't determine whether China's government had any role in SEIDA's launch or whether Zhang, the chief executive, or his colleagues received any state incentives to leave Siemens EDA and work there.
Reporters reviewed some of SEIDA's corporate filings with the help of two companies that collect and analyze Chinese business records – Datenna, of the Netherlands, and Global Data Risk, based in New York.
Combined with interviews and public records, the filings, dating back to October 2021, enabled Reuters to piece together some of SEIDA's history so far.
SEIDA, the filings show, is majority-owned by partnerships now controlled by Zhang and some of the former Siemens EDA colleagues who joined him.
It isn't clear when those partnerships were established or by whom.
Records show the partnerships invested in SEIDA in November 2021 – weeks after the startup's launch and before Zhang left Siemens EDA.
Zhang's path toward SEIDA began at Mentor Graphics Corp, the predecessor company to Siemens EDA, acquired by Munich-based Siemens in 2017.
Mentor, started in Oregon in 1981, was an early innovator of EDA and eventually became one of three U.S. companies that sell most of the software worldwide.
By the time of its acquisition, Mentor boasted annual revenues of $1.2 billion.
With a masters degree in microelectronics from a Shanghai university, Zhang worked for more than a decade at Mentor and Siemens EDA, according to SEIDA’s 2022 presentation to investors.
Before joining the startup, he was a Siemens EDA product director.
Zhang is now 44 years old, according to U.S. and Chinese records.
He became chief executive of SEIDA in July 2022, according to the SEIDA filings.
Reuters found that at least three other Chinese-born colleagues who joined Zhang were also longtime employees of Siemens EDA.
Two of them, Zhitang "Tim" Yu and Yun Fei "Jack" Deng, earned doctorates from U.S. universities, academic records show.
Born in China, Yu is also an American citizen, according to U.S. records.
Deng, also born in China, obtained legal permanent resident status in the United States.
SEIDA declined to make Deng or Yu available for interviews.
Under the new export restrictions, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can face penalties if they help Chinese companies develop or manufacture advanced chips without a license.
Those penalties can include citations, fines or prison time, depending on the violation.
Chang, the chief operating officer, said by email: "We continuously monitor both emerging and existing regulations to ensure our operations align with applicable legal standards."
As they sought investors last year, SEIDA executives aimed high.
In the 2022 slideshow, they projected the company could be worth as much as 700 million yuan, or $99 million, by the end of last year.
By 2026, they said, SEIDA hoped to sell shares to the public.
Their efforts attracted at least one important backer.
In June 2023, SEIDA received undisclosed funding from China Fortune-Tech Capital Co, or CFTC, an investment vehicle owned by chipmaker SMIC, according to records compiled by Datenna and PitchBook Data Inc, a U.S.-based corporate research company.
CFTC didn't respond to requests for comment.
SEIDA continues to secure investors.
This month, according to its corporate filings, five more investors, including four Chinese venture capital firms, acquired stakes in the company.
Chang wouldn't say if the ongoing review of SEIDA's business plan means a departure from its early marketing of OPC.
"Due to the confidential nature of our business strategies, specific details of our current and future plans cannot be disclosed," Chang wrote.
During Reuters' visit to SEIDA headquarters, the reception desk bore the same branding as the early fundraising presentation.
The SEIDA name, according to the slideshow, is an acronym for "Semiconductor Intelligent Design Automation."
Its slogan, in the branding and on SEIDA's website, translates to "enable chip success."
Additional reporting by Engen Tham in Shanghai, David Lague in Hong Kong, and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Paulo Prada.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-w ... 023-12-29/
"US wants to contain China's chip industry. This startup shows it won't be easy"
By John Shiffman and Joshua Schneyer
December 29, 2023
WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Last year, a veteran Silicon Valley software executive took the helm of a startup in his native China, company records show.
The startup told potential investors it would sell microchip design software that is mostly available from just a handful of large Western companies.
The coveted and highly specialized software tool, known by its initials of OPC, is used in the design of many microchips and is crucial to the design of advanced chips.
The production of advanced chips is one of the most contentious technological struggles now dividing the United States and China as they vie for economic and military supremacy.
Washington is trying to curb China's access to sensitive microchip design tools.
The strategy behind the startup, dubbed SEIDA, shows why that containment effort is so challenging.
Before becoming chief executive of SEIDA, Liguo "Recoo" Zhang had lived in the United States long enough to secure permanent residency and purchase a Silicon Valley home, according to people familiar with his career and public records reviewed by Reuters.
He was employed by Siemens EDA, a U.S. unit of German industrial giant Siemens AG that dominates the market in China for the very technology SEIDA told investors it planned to sell there.
At least three other Chinese-born colleagues from Siemens EDA joined Zhang at SEIDA.
In a 2022 business-plan presentation prepared for investors, SEIDA called OPC "indispensable technology" and said it would offer the tool by early 2024.
A Chinese version of the product, SEIDA said, would "break through the foreign monopoly," helping China become self-reliant in chip technology.
SEIDA's ultimate goal, according to one slide: "Become OPC leader in the world."
The pitch attracted powerful Chinese investors.
One backer, recent corporate filings reviewed by Reuters show, is an investment arm of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, or SMIC.
The state-backed, Shanghai-based company is China's leading maker of microchips.
U.S. companies are restricted by Washington from providing technology to SMIC without a special license because its alleged work with China's military is considered a threat to American national security.
SMIC didn't respond to Reuters' requests for comment about the investment or the U.S. restrictions.
On a recent visit to SEIDA's headquarters in Hangzhou, in eastern China, a receptionist told Reuters that Zhang wasn't available for an interview.
In an email after the visit, Peilun "Allen" Chang, SEIDA's chief operating officer, said the prospectus reviewed by Reuters is "obsolete."
The company's objectives have evolved, he wrote, adding that its backers are primarily "private institutions and individuals."
Chang declined to specify how much capital SEIDA has raised or what products it now aims to pursue, saying its business plan remains "under continuous evaluation."
Siemens EDA, in a statement, confirmed Zhang's departure and that of three other colleagues.
The company said it considers SEIDA "a potential competitor" but declined to comment further.
Reuters couldn't determine whether SEIDA has progressed toward selling OPC, short for optical proximity correction.
The software is commonly employed for the design of many microchips and is part of a broader set of technologies known as electronic design automation, or EDA.
The tools can help design chips that could advance strategic new technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing and hypersonic flight.
Since SEIDA's launch in October 2021, the U.S. government has increased efforts to curb China's access to EDA tools, developed and sold mostly by American companies.
Through export controls and other restrictions, Washington aims to prevent China from obtaining know-how that could allow it to match microchip advances by the United States and its allies, including Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by China and the world's leading chip manufacturer.
In email exchanges with Reuters, Chang said U.S. restrictions were one of the reasons Zhang and his colleagues left Siemens EDA for SEIDA to begin with.
The restrictions, he wrote, limited their business opportunities at Siemens EDA, "diminishing scope for career advancement and involvement in key projects."
SEIDA adheres to U.S. and Chinese rules, Chang added.
Neither SEIDA nor its executives have been accused of wrongdoing.
And Reuters has no evidence SEIDA is using knowledge or technology that could be considered proprietary by Siemens EDA or others.
Chang said SEIDA has "a stringent vetting process…ensuring no infringement upon the intellectual property of others."
Experts in the sector, and people familiar with efforts by Beijing to outmaneuver U.S. curbs on technology transfer, say SEIDA's launch follows a pattern of Chinese companies building upon foreign know-how.
Even if the SEIDA executives didn't take property from their previous employer, the technologies involved are so complex that only years of experience with existing purveyors would allow them to offer similar products.
"Developing OPC from scratch without access to any existing intellectual property would be challenging in this timeframe, to say the least," said Jan-Peter Kleinhans, director of technology and geopolitics at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, a Berlin think tank where he has researched China's market for EDA tools.
The story of SEIDA, which hasn't been previously reported, illustrates the challenges the West faces in thwarting Chinese development of advanced microchip technology.
Despite Washington's efforts to slow China's acquisition of chip technology, Beijing is rushing to foster domestic development, attract expert expatriates to come home and overcome its lag in the sector.
A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said in a statement that the United States "abuses export control measures" and "applies illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction to Chinese companies."
China, the spokesperson added, has adopted laws to protect intellectual property and "complies with internationally accepted rules."
Technological advances in China, the statement continued, "are not the result of theft, nor of robbery, but are the result of Chinese people's ingenuity and hard work."
American officials have repeatedly said that Chinese efforts to secure Western technology pose one of the biggest long-term threats to the economy and security of the United States.
They have expressed particular concern about China's ability to employ advanced chips, and the powerful processors they enable, for its fast-growing military.
"At no point have export controls been more central to our national security," Matthew Axelrod, assistant U.S. commerce secretary for export enforcement, said at a Congressional hearing in Washington this month.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said such concerns reflect "a Cold War and hegemonic mentality."
While export rules may delay Beijing's progress, industry experts say, they are unlikely to stunt China's development of chip technology.
"The U.S. is lying across the tracks in an effort to stop the Chinese, but it is just going to become a speed bump," said Michael Bruck, a former general manager in China for chipmaker Intel Corp.
"It will push China to be more independent."
China's government has made its drive for more sophisticated chips a centerpiece of its strategic plans.
Last year, after Washington announced new restrictions, Beijing said the government would spend $143 billion to spur China's domestic chip sector.
Through a separate program known as "Thousand Talents," the government offers employment, housing, and other incentives for Chinese experts who return from science and tech jobs abroad.
The program, in existence for more than a decade, has been criticized by Washington because it is viewed by some as a mechanism for China to illegally obtain intellectual property from abroad.
Last May, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a California-based software engineer on trade secrets charges.
In an FBI affidavit related to the case, investigators said the engineer, Liming Li, had stolen millions of files from two unidentified U.S. employers.
One of the employers, the affidavit shows, found a folder on Li's laptop containing documents related to "Thousand Talents."
The pilfered company files, the FBI alleged, included unspecified materials related to "national security, nuclear nonproliferation and anti-terrorism."
Li has pleaded not guilty.
His attorney, Daniel Olmos, declined to comment.
Reuters this year has chronicled the race between the West and China for dominance in sectors ranging from killer robots to undersea cables to encryption of digital communications.
The struggle for primacy in chipmaking will help determine who triumphs in these technologies and others that will become available once faster processors are developed to enable them.
"THE LIMITS OF PHYSICS"
Since the 1950s, America's pioneering of chip technology played a major role in the country's creation of the world's largest economy, powerful high-tech and financial sectors, and a thus-far unparalleled military.
But China's fast economic growth, and its stated ambition to assert its place as a global power, is now challenging that dominance.
In the Cold War, Washington blocked exports of some raw materials that Eastern Bloc countries could have used to develop weaponry.
At the time, such measures succeeded because countries behind the Iron Curtain were already economically isolated.
Now, though, globalization has made most industries far more interconnected.
Semiconductors, an approximately $600 billion a year business, are no exception.
From raw materials to design to assembly, chips are a global industry.
"The United States is not going to be able to cut the Chinese off like we did the Soviets," said James Andrew Lewis, director of the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, or CSIS, a Washington think tank.
An ambition both countries share is self-reliance in the manufacture of advanced microchips.
Although the United States still leads in many of the technologies needed to design chips, most of the actual printing and assembly happens in Asia.
The United States relies heavily on South Korea for memory chips and Taiwan for logic chips.
Memory chips store and retrieve information and logic chips process data and execute instructions.
Last year, the United States approved nearly $53 billion for "CHIPS for America," a program, administered by the Commerce Department, that offers financial incentives to companies that can increase domestic production.
Recipients of the incentives are restricted from sharing sensitive technologies with China and other countries not allied with the United States.
Among the challenges for China to create more advanced chips is access to EDA tools, such as the OPC software touted by SEIDA in early marketing.
Producing the fastest, most capable chips and circuit boards involves designing and printing them with billions of ever-smaller transistors.
To achieve such microscopic connections, EDA helps lay out and verify the design of these circuits and simulate how they'll perform under real-world conditions.
But EDA tools require intense processing power.
So specialized is the technology that some advances are marketed as scientific breakthroughs.
NVIDIA Corp, the California-based company that is the leading supplier of chips for artificial intelligence, in March said recent advances in OPC technology would help it push the semiconductor industry "to the limits of physics."
Despite U.S. export controls, China is making advances.
In 2019, the Commerce Department placed Huawei Technologies Co, the Chinese telecommunications giant, on its list of companies that can't buy U.S. technologies unless the vendor obtains a special license.
As with SMIC, blacklisted by the department a year later, the U.S. cited national security concerns.
"Our export controls on China are designed to massively slow down technology acquisition," Thea D. Rozman Kendler, assistant commerce secretary for export administration, said at the recent Congressional hearing.
Still, Huawei in August introduced a new 5G smartphone with a sophisticated, seven-nanometer chip manufactured by SMIC.
The phone, unveiled while U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was visiting China, was announced to great fanfare.
The Commerce Department later said it is investigating whether the two companies relied on restricted U.S. technologies to develop the chip.
Huawei declined to comment.
Proving the source of some technologies can be challenging.
Many semiconductor advances build upon existing intellectual property.
And the turnover of personnel within the industry, especially across international borders, can make it difficult to investigate export violations or pursue claims of intellectual property theft.
"You can't really control what's in people's brains with any export controls," said Lewis of CSIS.
Alon Raphael, chief executive of a California company that sells a tool to detect semiconductor defects, said he learned that lesson the hard way.
Until 2020, he said, FemtoMetrix Inc, was the sole supplier of the technology, which it spent a decade developing.
But late that year, Raphael said, Chongji Huang, a key employee, resigned and emerged later in China with a Shanghai-based startup that offers a similar product.
"I had heard these kinds of stories," Raphael told Reuters, "but I said to myself, 'No, not that guy, he's my friend.'"
Late last year, FemtoMetrix filed suit in California against the startup.
Robert Shwarts, an attorney representing Huang and his startup, Weichong Semiconductor Group, told Reuters that neither Huang nor the startup took anything from FemtoMetrix, nor did they violate any trade secrets.
"ENABLE CHIP SUCCESS"
SEIDA, the startup managed by Siemens EDA veterans, is one of many Chinese tech startups founded in recent years to meet Beijing’s call for a stronger domestic semiconductor industry.
The proliferation can be hard to track.
Recent changes to Chinese regulations restrict access to company registries.
Reuters couldn't determine whether China's government had any role in SEIDA's launch or whether Zhang, the chief executive, or his colleagues received any state incentives to leave Siemens EDA and work there.
Reporters reviewed some of SEIDA's corporate filings with the help of two companies that collect and analyze Chinese business records – Datenna, of the Netherlands, and Global Data Risk, based in New York.
Combined with interviews and public records, the filings, dating back to October 2021, enabled Reuters to piece together some of SEIDA's history so far.
SEIDA, the filings show, is majority-owned by partnerships now controlled by Zhang and some of the former Siemens EDA colleagues who joined him.
It isn't clear when those partnerships were established or by whom.
Records show the partnerships invested in SEIDA in November 2021 – weeks after the startup's launch and before Zhang left Siemens EDA.
Zhang's path toward SEIDA began at Mentor Graphics Corp, the predecessor company to Siemens EDA, acquired by Munich-based Siemens in 2017.
Mentor, started in Oregon in 1981, was an early innovator of EDA and eventually became one of three U.S. companies that sell most of the software worldwide.
By the time of its acquisition, Mentor boasted annual revenues of $1.2 billion.
With a masters degree in microelectronics from a Shanghai university, Zhang worked for more than a decade at Mentor and Siemens EDA, according to SEIDA’s 2022 presentation to investors.
Before joining the startup, he was a Siemens EDA product director.
Zhang is now 44 years old, according to U.S. and Chinese records.
He became chief executive of SEIDA in July 2022, according to the SEIDA filings.
Reuters found that at least three other Chinese-born colleagues who joined Zhang were also longtime employees of Siemens EDA.
Two of them, Zhitang "Tim" Yu and Yun Fei "Jack" Deng, earned doctorates from U.S. universities, academic records show.
Born in China, Yu is also an American citizen, according to U.S. records.
Deng, also born in China, obtained legal permanent resident status in the United States.
SEIDA declined to make Deng or Yu available for interviews.
Under the new export restrictions, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can face penalties if they help Chinese companies develop or manufacture advanced chips without a license.
Those penalties can include citations, fines or prison time, depending on the violation.
Chang, the chief operating officer, said by email: "We continuously monitor both emerging and existing regulations to ensure our operations align with applicable legal standards."
As they sought investors last year, SEIDA executives aimed high.
In the 2022 slideshow, they projected the company could be worth as much as 700 million yuan, or $99 million, by the end of last year.
By 2026, they said, SEIDA hoped to sell shares to the public.
Their efforts attracted at least one important backer.
In June 2023, SEIDA received undisclosed funding from China Fortune-Tech Capital Co, or CFTC, an investment vehicle owned by chipmaker SMIC, according to records compiled by Datenna and PitchBook Data Inc, a U.S.-based corporate research company.
CFTC didn't respond to requests for comment.
SEIDA continues to secure investors.
This month, according to its corporate filings, five more investors, including four Chinese venture capital firms, acquired stakes in the company.
Chang wouldn't say if the ongoing review of SEIDA's business plan means a departure from its early marketing of OPC.
"Due to the confidential nature of our business strategies, specific details of our current and future plans cannot be disclosed," Chang wrote.
During Reuters' visit to SEIDA headquarters, the reception desk bore the same branding as the early fundraising presentation.
The SEIDA name, according to the slideshow, is an acronym for "Semiconductor Intelligent Design Automation."
Its slogan, in the branding and on SEIDA's website, translates to "enable chip success."
Additional reporting by Engen Tham in Shanghai, David Lague in Hong Kong, and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Paulo Prada.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-w ... 023-12-29/
Re: CHINA
FOX News
"Hunter Biden business associate to testify on Biden's alleged role in China deals amid impeachment inquiry"
Story by Brooke Singman
25 JANUARY 2024
Hunter Biden’s business associate involved in his dealings with Chinese energy company CEFC is expected to appear for a closed-door transcribed interview Thursday morning before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Mervyn Yan, who worked with the first son on deals with Chinese energy company CEFC, was subpoenaed last November to appear as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
He is expected to appear at 10 a.m. on Capitol Hill.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan notified Yan of his subpoena and explained the reason for compelling his appearance.
"President Biden has received money originating from China via James and Hunter Biden, individuals with whom your client has previously engaged in business," Comer and Jordan wrote to Yan's attorney.
"James Biden maintained a business relationship with Hunter Biden, and the two engaged in several business deals, including a deal with Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy (CEFC), which is closely ties to the Chinese Communist Party through its founder, Chairman Ye Jianming."
Fox News Digital first reported on the funds transferred to Joe Biden in November.
Comer said the "money trail" began in July 2017 when Hunter Biden demanded a $10 million payment from a CEFC associate.
In a WhatsApp message, Hunter Biden "was sitting with his father and that the Biden network would turn on his associate if he didn’t pony up the money," Comer said.
Hunter Biden in the WhatsApp message allegedly told a Chinese business associate from Chinese energy company CEFC that he and his father would ensure "you will regret not following my direction."
Hunter requested the $10 million wire for his joint-venture with CEFC called SinoHawk Holdings.
"I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled," Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management.
"And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."
Zhao responded, in part, "CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family."
The Oversight Committee then obtained bank records that showed on Aug. 8, 2017, the $5 million in funds were sent to Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong.
The same day, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to Owasco PC — a separate entity controlled and owned by Hunter Biden, Comer said.
Days later, on Aug. 14, 2017, the records show Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden.
By Aug. 28, 2017, Comer said Sara Biden withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group and later deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account.
Sara Biden wrote a check to Joe Biden a few days later for $40,000, with a memo line of the check reading "loan repayment."
While President Biden has maintained he was never in business with his son, text messages obtained by Fox News Digital in 2020 revealed that in May 2017 he met with Hunter's business associates for the Sinohawk venture, specifically Tony Bobulinski.
The meeting on May 2, 2017, would have taken place just 11 days before a May 13, 2017, email obtained by Fox News in 2020 that included a discussion of "remuneration packages" for six people in the business deal with CEFC.
The email includes a note that "Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate."
A proposed equity split references "20" for "H" and "10 held by H for the big guy?" with no further details.
The "big guy" has been said to be a reference to President Biden.
Also, Fox News Digital in December 2020 reported that Hunter Biden, his CEFC associate, Gongwen Dong, and Joe Biden shared office space in Washington, D.C., in September 2017.
Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan, in demanding Yan’s testimony, said they expect he will "provide evidence that is relevant to the impeachment inquiry," specifically related to his "knowledge of how James Biden and Hunter Biden operated their businesses and structured their financial transactions, and your client may also know whether and how President Biden has been involved in his family’s business dealings."
Comer and Jordan also said Yan could be in a position to provide information on whether Joe Biden, as vice president or as president, "took any official action or effected any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to himself or his family, including whether concerns that Chinese sources may release additional evidence about their business relationships with the Biden family have had any impact on official acts performed by President Biden or U.S. foreign policy."
They also said he may provide evidence of whether Joe Biden "abused his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him" or "abused his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him."
Yan’s transcribed interview is expected to take place a day before Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker appears for testimony and weeks before Hunter Biden appears for his deposition.
Biden defied his subpoena to appear for a deposition on Dec. 13 and was at risk of being held in contempt of Congress.
His attorneys and the committees came to an agreement last week that the first son will appear for a closed-door deposition on Feb. 28.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... de0f&ei=23
"Hunter Biden business associate to testify on Biden's alleged role in China deals amid impeachment inquiry"
Story by Brooke Singman
25 JANUARY 2024
Hunter Biden’s business associate involved in his dealings with Chinese energy company CEFC is expected to appear for a closed-door transcribed interview Thursday morning before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Mervyn Yan, who worked with the first son on deals with Chinese energy company CEFC, was subpoenaed last November to appear as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
He is expected to appear at 10 a.m. on Capitol Hill.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan notified Yan of his subpoena and explained the reason for compelling his appearance.
"President Biden has received money originating from China via James and Hunter Biden, individuals with whom your client has previously engaged in business," Comer and Jordan wrote to Yan's attorney.
"James Biden maintained a business relationship with Hunter Biden, and the two engaged in several business deals, including a deal with Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy (CEFC), which is closely ties to the Chinese Communist Party through its founder, Chairman Ye Jianming."
Fox News Digital first reported on the funds transferred to Joe Biden in November.
Comer said the "money trail" began in July 2017 when Hunter Biden demanded a $10 million payment from a CEFC associate.
In a WhatsApp message, Hunter Biden "was sitting with his father and that the Biden network would turn on his associate if he didn’t pony up the money," Comer said.
Hunter Biden in the WhatsApp message allegedly told a Chinese business associate from Chinese energy company CEFC that he and his father would ensure "you will regret not following my direction."
Hunter requested the $10 million wire for his joint-venture with CEFC called SinoHawk Holdings.
"I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled," Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management.
"And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction."
Zhao responded, in part, "CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family."
The Oversight Committee then obtained bank records that showed on Aug. 8, 2017, the $5 million in funds were sent to Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong.
The same day, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to Owasco PC — a separate entity controlled and owned by Hunter Biden, Comer said.
Days later, on Aug. 14, 2017, the records show Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden.
By Aug. 28, 2017, Comer said Sara Biden withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group and later deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account.
Sara Biden wrote a check to Joe Biden a few days later for $40,000, with a memo line of the check reading "loan repayment."
While President Biden has maintained he was never in business with his son, text messages obtained by Fox News Digital in 2020 revealed that in May 2017 he met with Hunter's business associates for the Sinohawk venture, specifically Tony Bobulinski.
The meeting on May 2, 2017, would have taken place just 11 days before a May 13, 2017, email obtained by Fox News in 2020 that included a discussion of "remuneration packages" for six people in the business deal with CEFC.
The email includes a note that "Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate."
A proposed equity split references "20" for "H" and "10 held by H for the big guy?" with no further details.
The "big guy" has been said to be a reference to President Biden.
Also, Fox News Digital in December 2020 reported that Hunter Biden, his CEFC associate, Gongwen Dong, and Joe Biden shared office space in Washington, D.C., in September 2017.
Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan, in demanding Yan’s testimony, said they expect he will "provide evidence that is relevant to the impeachment inquiry," specifically related to his "knowledge of how James Biden and Hunter Biden operated their businesses and structured their financial transactions, and your client may also know whether and how President Biden has been involved in his family’s business dealings."
Comer and Jordan also said Yan could be in a position to provide information on whether Joe Biden, as vice president or as president, "took any official action or effected any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to himself or his family, including whether concerns that Chinese sources may release additional evidence about their business relationships with the Biden family have had any impact on official acts performed by President Biden or U.S. foreign policy."
They also said he may provide evidence of whether Joe Biden "abused his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him" or "abused his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him."
Yan’s transcribed interview is expected to take place a day before Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker appears for testimony and weeks before Hunter Biden appears for his deposition.
Biden defied his subpoena to appear for a deposition on Dec. 13 and was at risk of being held in contempt of Congress.
His attorneys and the committees came to an agreement last week that the first son will appear for a closed-door deposition on Feb. 28.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... de0f&ei=23
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"Foreign holdings of US Treasuries surge to all-time high in December - data"
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
February 15, 2024
NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries soared to another all-time peak in December, data from the Treasury Department showed on Thursday, rising for a second straight month.
Holdings of U.S. Treasuries rose to $8.06 trillion in December, from what was then a record high of $7.808 trillion in November.
Compared with a year earlier, Treasuries held by foreigners expanded by 10.5%.
The increased buying of Treasuries continued a trend of the last few months, after yields dropped as the market priced in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The three largest holders of Treasuries -- Japan, China and the UK -- led the purchase U.S. government debt.
Japanese investors raised their stash of Treasuries to $1.138 trillion in December, from $1.127 trillion in November, data showed.
Their holdings were the largest since August 2022.
Japan remains the largest non-U.S. holder of U.S. government debt.
China's holdings of Treasuries rose to $816.3 billion, up $34.3 billion from $782 billion held in November.
China's load of Treasuries rose for a second straight month.
Before that, China's Treasury holdings had declined for seven straight months.
In October last year, China's holding dropped to $763.5 billion, the lowest since March 2009.
The UK, meanwhile, listed its Treasury holdings at $753.7 billion in December, a record high.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield started November at 4.22%, ending the month at 3.86%, down 36 basis points.
The decline in yields coincided with the pivot by the Fed to a neutral stance from a tightening bias.
Data further showed that major U.S. asset classes showed inflows during the month.
On a transaction basis, U.S. Treasuries posted inflows of $33.8 billion, from a revised $72.4 billion in November.
U.S. equities showed inflows of $79.7 billion in December, sharply up from an outflow of $200 million in the previous month.
Foreign buying of U.S. corporates and agencies in November continued, with inflows of $23.8 billion and $4.6 billion, respectively.
Overall, net foreign acquisitions of long-term and short-term securities, as well as banking flows, showed a net inflow of $139.8 billion in December, down from a revised $223.3 billion posted in November, according to U.S. Treasury data.
Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis
https://www.reuters.com/markets/foreign ... 024-02-15/
"Foreign holdings of US Treasuries surge to all-time high in December - data"
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
February 15, 2024
NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries soared to another all-time peak in December, data from the Treasury Department showed on Thursday, rising for a second straight month.
Holdings of U.S. Treasuries rose to $8.06 trillion in December, from what was then a record high of $7.808 trillion in November.
Compared with a year earlier, Treasuries held by foreigners expanded by 10.5%.
The increased buying of Treasuries continued a trend of the last few months, after yields dropped as the market priced in interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The three largest holders of Treasuries -- Japan, China and the UK -- led the purchase U.S. government debt.
Japanese investors raised their stash of Treasuries to $1.138 trillion in December, from $1.127 trillion in November, data showed.
Their holdings were the largest since August 2022.
Japan remains the largest non-U.S. holder of U.S. government debt.
China's holdings of Treasuries rose to $816.3 billion, up $34.3 billion from $782 billion held in November.
China's load of Treasuries rose for a second straight month.
Before that, China's Treasury holdings had declined for seven straight months.
In October last year, China's holding dropped to $763.5 billion, the lowest since March 2009.
The UK, meanwhile, listed its Treasury holdings at $753.7 billion in December, a record high.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield started November at 4.22%, ending the month at 3.86%, down 36 basis points.
The decline in yields coincided with the pivot by the Fed to a neutral stance from a tightening bias.
Data further showed that major U.S. asset classes showed inflows during the month.
On a transaction basis, U.S. Treasuries posted inflows of $33.8 billion, from a revised $72.4 billion in November.
U.S. equities showed inflows of $79.7 billion in December, sharply up from an outflow of $200 million in the previous month.
Foreign buying of U.S. corporates and agencies in November continued, with inflows of $23.8 billion and $4.6 billion, respectively.
Overall, net foreign acquisitions of long-term and short-term securities, as well as banking flows, showed a net inflow of $139.8 billion in December, down from a revised $223.3 billion posted in November, according to U.S. Treasury data.
Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis
https://www.reuters.com/markets/foreign ... 024-02-15/
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"Exclusive: US targets China's top chipmaking plant after Huawei Mate 60 Pro"
By Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld
February 21, 2024
WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is turning up the heat on China's top sanctioned chipmaker by cutting off its most advanced factory from more American imports after it produced a sophisticated chip for Huawei's Mate 60 Pro phone, three people familiar with the matter said.
Late last year, the Commerce Department sent dozens of letters to U.S. suppliers to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, suspending permission to sell to its most advanced plant, said two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
While many companies had already stopped selling to SMIC South, as the unit is known, the letters halted millions of dollars worth of shipments of chipmaking materials and parts from at least one supplier, Entegris, one of the people said.
Reuters found no evidence that Entegris had violated any U.S. laws or regulations.
Entegris, whose shares fell 1.9 percent on Wednesday, said it made the shipments in accordance with a valid export license and halted them after receiving letters from the Commerce Department suspending permission to send products to SMIC South.
The Massachusetts-based company, which produces filters, gases, chemicals, and products for handling wafers, the building blocks for making chips, said it monitors and complies with the "rapidly evolving regulatory requirements" for international trade affecting the chip industry.
SMIC did not respond to a request for comment.
Huawei, the White House and the Commerce Department declined to comment.
"This is out-and-out economic bullying and will inevitably backfire," said a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington.
"We urge the U.S. side to stop overstretching the concept of national security and abusing the state power to suppress Chinese companies."
The license suspensions by the Commerce Department, first reported by Reuters, show the Biden administration has taken action against SMIC amid rising pressure from Republican China hawks to stem the flow of U.S. technology to the company and degrade its ability to make sophisticated chips.
That pressure has built since August, when sanctioned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei shocked the world with a new phone powered by a sophisticated chip.
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro was seen as a symbol of the China's technological resurgence despite Washington's ongoing efforts to cripple its capacity to produce advanced semiconductors.
The phone also prompted a review by the Biden administration to learn the details behind the chip that powers it, the most advanced semiconductor China has so far produced.
Critics say the round of letters don't go far enough.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Commerce Department should have acted sooner.
"This was negligent work by [the agency] and casts further doubt on its ability to fulfill its national security mission," he added in a statement to Reuters this month.
Commerce declined to comment on McCaul's allegations of negligence.
RISING RESTRICTIONS
The United States has charted a slow course towards depriving SMIC and Huawei of access to advanced U.S. technology.
Huawei was added to a trade restrictions list in 2019 by the Trump administration over alleged sanctions violations.
SMIC was added to the same list in 2020 for alleged ties to the Chinese military industrial complex.
Both companies have previously denied wrongdoing.
Being added to that list usually bars U.S. companies from selling to the targeted firms, but Trump gave the green light to shipments of certain items to Huawei and SMIC, allowing billions of dollars in U.S. goods to flow to them over the last few years.
The Biden administration unveiled new rules in October, 2022, which effectively banned U.S. suppliers from sending semiconductor tools and materials to advanced Chinese-run chipmaking factories in China including SMIC South.
But U.S. rules allowed companies with preexisting licenses -- which generally are valid for four years -- to keep supplying the facility.
Entegris shipped chipmaking parts and materials to SMIC South between October 2022 and the end of last year, a person familiar with the matter said.
China accounted for 16% of Entegris’ net sales of about $3.5 billion in fiscal 2023, the company said in its annual report, noting that recent U.S. export regulations “have reduced our ability to sell our products in China and it is possible future regulation could further reduce demand for our products.”
Lita Shon-Roy, CEO of market research firm Techcet, said SMIC South could likely turn to Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean sources for most chemicals and parts used in the chipmaking process.
However, if SMIC’s top facility “saw its United States supply chain suddenly cut off, that could potentially interrupt their production for 3 to 9 months depending on inventories,” she said.
She noted it would take time to find and conduct rigorous testing of new suppliers unless SMIC South had done so in advance.
Experts assert that SMIC South is the only SMIC factory with the capability of making the Mate 60's 7 nanometer chip.
Analysis firm Techsights also said in September a teardown of the phone revealed SMIC built the advanced processor to power it.
"I don't think there's any doubt that it's that [factory]," said Doug Fuller, a chip industry expert with the Copenhagen Business School.
Reuters reported in December how a chip designer part-owned by SMIC still enjoys access to state-of-the art U.S. chip design software.
Reporting by Alexandra Alper and additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; editing by Chris Sanders and Anna Driver
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-t ... 024-02-21/
"Exclusive: US targets China's top chipmaking plant after Huawei Mate 60 Pro"
By Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld
February 21, 2024
WASHINGTON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is turning up the heat on China's top sanctioned chipmaker by cutting off its most advanced factory from more American imports after it produced a sophisticated chip for Huawei's Mate 60 Pro phone, three people familiar with the matter said.
Late last year, the Commerce Department sent dozens of letters to U.S. suppliers to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, suspending permission to sell to its most advanced plant, said two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
While many companies had already stopped selling to SMIC South, as the unit is known, the letters halted millions of dollars worth of shipments of chipmaking materials and parts from at least one supplier, Entegris, one of the people said.
Reuters found no evidence that Entegris had violated any U.S. laws or regulations.
Entegris, whose shares fell 1.9 percent on Wednesday, said it made the shipments in accordance with a valid export license and halted them after receiving letters from the Commerce Department suspending permission to send products to SMIC South.
The Massachusetts-based company, which produces filters, gases, chemicals, and products for handling wafers, the building blocks for making chips, said it monitors and complies with the "rapidly evolving regulatory requirements" for international trade affecting the chip industry.
SMIC did not respond to a request for comment.
Huawei, the White House and the Commerce Department declined to comment.
"This is out-and-out economic bullying and will inevitably backfire," said a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington.
"We urge the U.S. side to stop overstretching the concept of national security and abusing the state power to suppress Chinese companies."
The license suspensions by the Commerce Department, first reported by Reuters, show the Biden administration has taken action against SMIC amid rising pressure from Republican China hawks to stem the flow of U.S. technology to the company and degrade its ability to make sophisticated chips.
That pressure has built since August, when sanctioned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei shocked the world with a new phone powered by a sophisticated chip.
The Huawei Mate 60 Pro was seen as a symbol of the China's technological resurgence despite Washington's ongoing efforts to cripple its capacity to produce advanced semiconductors.
The phone also prompted a review by the Biden administration to learn the details behind the chip that powers it, the most advanced semiconductor China has so far produced.
Critics say the round of letters don't go far enough.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the Commerce Department should have acted sooner.
"This was negligent work by [the agency] and casts further doubt on its ability to fulfill its national security mission," he added in a statement to Reuters this month.
Commerce declined to comment on McCaul's allegations of negligence.
RISING RESTRICTIONS
The United States has charted a slow course towards depriving SMIC and Huawei of access to advanced U.S. technology.
Huawei was added to a trade restrictions list in 2019 by the Trump administration over alleged sanctions violations.
SMIC was added to the same list in 2020 for alleged ties to the Chinese military industrial complex.
Both companies have previously denied wrongdoing.
Being added to that list usually bars U.S. companies from selling to the targeted firms, but Trump gave the green light to shipments of certain items to Huawei and SMIC, allowing billions of dollars in U.S. goods to flow to them over the last few years.
The Biden administration unveiled new rules in October, 2022, which effectively banned U.S. suppliers from sending semiconductor tools and materials to advanced Chinese-run chipmaking factories in China including SMIC South.
But U.S. rules allowed companies with preexisting licenses -- which generally are valid for four years -- to keep supplying the facility.
Entegris shipped chipmaking parts and materials to SMIC South between October 2022 and the end of last year, a person familiar with the matter said.
China accounted for 16% of Entegris’ net sales of about $3.5 billion in fiscal 2023, the company said in its annual report, noting that recent U.S. export regulations “have reduced our ability to sell our products in China and it is possible future regulation could further reduce demand for our products.”
Lita Shon-Roy, CEO of market research firm Techcet, said SMIC South could likely turn to Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean sources for most chemicals and parts used in the chipmaking process.
However, if SMIC’s top facility “saw its United States supply chain suddenly cut off, that could potentially interrupt their production for 3 to 9 months depending on inventories,” she said.
She noted it would take time to find and conduct rigorous testing of new suppliers unless SMIC South had done so in advance.
Experts assert that SMIC South is the only SMIC factory with the capability of making the Mate 60's 7 nanometer chip.
Analysis firm Techsights also said in September a teardown of the phone revealed SMIC built the advanced processor to power it.
"I don't think there's any doubt that it's that [factory]," said Doug Fuller, a chip industry expert with the Copenhagen Business School.
Reuters reported in December how a chip designer part-owned by SMIC still enjoys access to state-of-the art U.S. chip design software.
Reporting by Alexandra Alper and additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; editing by Chris Sanders and Anna Driver
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-t ... 024-02-21/
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"China's woes won't slow US economy, but excess capacity a concern, says Treasury's Adeyemo"
By David Lawder
February 23, 2024
Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Friday that he is concerned about China's excess manufacturing capacity spilling over to the global economy, even if China's current economic woes are unlikely to slow U.S. growth in the near term.
"I am not concerned about the headwinds from China having a large impact on the US economy," Adeyemo told a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York, referring to challenges from its property sector, an aging population and a worsening business climate for private firms.
"The thing that I am fundamentally concerned about from China is excess capacity coming from China and hitting the global economy," Adeyemo said.
China's heavily subsidized manufacturing capacity for electric vehicles, solar panels and other goods has followed industries such as steel and aluminum in producing more goods than China can consume, he added.
"Fundamentally that overcapacity is going to go somewhere," Adeyemo said, adding that U.S. tariffs and tax credits for EVs and their batteries will help keep Chinese EVs out of the U.S. market and allow American firms to compete more fairly.
"This is going to be a challenge for the global economy and it's something we are talking directly with the Chinese about," Adeyemo said.
"They need to compete on a level playing field, not just with the United States, but with countries around the world."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to raise her concerns about Chinese excess capacity with counterparts on the sidelines of a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, next week, a senior Biden administration official said.
DOLLAR DOMINANCE
Adeyemo, who presented a new round of U.S. sanctions on over 500 Russian-linked targets a day before the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, downplayed the potential for damage to the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency from such measures.
He said it was important that sanctions be multilateral and targeted to maximize their effectiveness.
"Fundamentally, my view about this question of whether the use of sanctions is going to lead to some challenges to the dollar, is that the thing that's going to matter to the dollar's role in the global economy isn't the strength of our economy."
He said Biden administration policies, including investments in infrastructure, semiconductors and clean energy technologies, have made the U.S. a more attractive investment destination.
"As long as we are able to continue to do that, I feel good about the fact that the dollar, America's financial system, is going to remain dominant in the world," Adeyemo said.
Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Diane Craft and Marguerita Choy
https://www.reuters.com/markets/chinas- ... 024-02-23/
"China's woes won't slow US economy, but excess capacity a concern, says Treasury's Adeyemo"
By David Lawder
February 23, 2024
Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Friday that he is concerned about China's excess manufacturing capacity spilling over to the global economy, even if China's current economic woes are unlikely to slow U.S. growth in the near term.
"I am not concerned about the headwinds from China having a large impact on the US economy," Adeyemo told a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York, referring to challenges from its property sector, an aging population and a worsening business climate for private firms.
"The thing that I am fundamentally concerned about from China is excess capacity coming from China and hitting the global economy," Adeyemo said.
China's heavily subsidized manufacturing capacity for electric vehicles, solar panels and other goods has followed industries such as steel and aluminum in producing more goods than China can consume, he added.
"Fundamentally that overcapacity is going to go somewhere," Adeyemo said, adding that U.S. tariffs and tax credits for EVs and their batteries will help keep Chinese EVs out of the U.S. market and allow American firms to compete more fairly.
"This is going to be a challenge for the global economy and it's something we are talking directly with the Chinese about," Adeyemo said.
"They need to compete on a level playing field, not just with the United States, but with countries around the world."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to raise her concerns about Chinese excess capacity with counterparts on the sidelines of a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, next week, a senior Biden administration official said.
DOLLAR DOMINANCE
Adeyemo, who presented a new round of U.S. sanctions on over 500 Russian-linked targets a day before the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, downplayed the potential for damage to the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency from such measures.
He said it was important that sanctions be multilateral and targeted to maximize their effectiveness.
"Fundamentally, my view about this question of whether the use of sanctions is going to lead to some challenges to the dollar, is that the thing that's going to matter to the dollar's role in the global economy isn't the strength of our economy."
He said Biden administration policies, including investments in infrastructure, semiconductors and clean energy technologies, have made the U.S. a more attractive investment destination.
"As long as we are able to continue to do that, I feel good about the fact that the dollar, America's financial system, is going to remain dominant in the world," Adeyemo said.
Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Diane Craft and Marguerita Choy
https://www.reuters.com/markets/chinas- ... 024-02-23/
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"US State Department requests $4 billion to outcompete China"
By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk
March 11, 2024
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The United States must employ "all the tools at our disposal" to outcompete China, a top U.S. State Department official said on Monday, as the Biden administration unveiled its budget request for the 2025 fiscal year.
The request includes $4 billion over five years in mandatory funding for this purpose, including $2 billion to create a new international infrastructure fund to provide a credible, reliable alternative to Chinese infrastructure funding, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Rich Verma told a news briefing.
The other $2 billion was earmarked for "game-changing investments" to help Indo-Pacific countries push back against "predatory efforts," he said, adding that those would include efforts to improve governance and the rule of law.
The State Department requested a separate $4 billion in discretionary funding to cover foreign assistance and diplomatic engagement in the region.
U.S. efforts to fund infrastructure in developing countries have long been dwarfed by China's massive Belt and Road Initiative, a 10-year-old project to build infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes.
According to a report by U.S. researchers last November, Chinese financial institutions lent $1.34 trillion to developing countries from 2000 to 2021.
"We must employ all the tools at our disposal to outcompete China, wherever possible," Verma said, also referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People's Republic of China (PRC).
He said the request for fiscal 2025 would allow the U.S. "to continue to invest in the foundations of our strength at home, align with like-minded partners to strengthen our shared interests and address the challenges posed by the PRC, and harness those assets to compete with the PRC and defend our interests."
Verma said the infrastructure fund would support "transformative, quality and sustainable hard infrastructure projects."
At the 2023 G20 Summit in India, U.S. officials said President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-hosted a group of G20 leaders to accelerate investments in high-quality infrastructure projects and development of economic corridors through a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI).
This came after the Group of Seven rich Western countries leaders pledged in 2022 to raise $600 billion in private and public funds over five years to finance needed infrastructure in developing countries and counter the Belt and Road project.
Overseas finance has won Beijing friends across the developing world, while drawing criticism from the West and in some recipient countries, including Sri Lanka and Zambia, that infrastructure projects it funded saddled them with debt they were unable to repay.
Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Chris Reese, Don Durfee and Jonathan Oatis
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sta ... 024-03-11/
"US State Department requests $4 billion to outcompete China"
By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk
March 11, 2024
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The United States must employ "all the tools at our disposal" to outcompete China, a top U.S. State Department official said on Monday, as the Biden administration unveiled its budget request for the 2025 fiscal year.
The request includes $4 billion over five years in mandatory funding for this purpose, including $2 billion to create a new international infrastructure fund to provide a credible, reliable alternative to Chinese infrastructure funding, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Rich Verma told a news briefing.
The other $2 billion was earmarked for "game-changing investments" to help Indo-Pacific countries push back against "predatory efforts," he said, adding that those would include efforts to improve governance and the rule of law.
The State Department requested a separate $4 billion in discretionary funding to cover foreign assistance and diplomatic engagement in the region.
U.S. efforts to fund infrastructure in developing countries have long been dwarfed by China's massive Belt and Road Initiative, a 10-year-old project to build infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe through overland and maritime routes.
According to a report by U.S. researchers last November, Chinese financial institutions lent $1.34 trillion to developing countries from 2000 to 2021.
"We must employ all the tools at our disposal to outcompete China, wherever possible," Verma said, also referring to China by the initials of its official name, the People's Republic of China (PRC).
He said the request for fiscal 2025 would allow the U.S. "to continue to invest in the foundations of our strength at home, align with like-minded partners to strengthen our shared interests and address the challenges posed by the PRC, and harness those assets to compete with the PRC and defend our interests."
Verma said the infrastructure fund would support "transformative, quality and sustainable hard infrastructure projects."
At the 2023 G20 Summit in India, U.S. officials said President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-hosted a group of G20 leaders to accelerate investments in high-quality infrastructure projects and development of economic corridors through a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI).
This came after the Group of Seven rich Western countries leaders pledged in 2022 to raise $600 billion in private and public funds over five years to finance needed infrastructure in developing countries and counter the Belt and Road project.
Overseas finance has won Beijing friends across the developing world, while drawing criticism from the West and in some recipient countries, including Sri Lanka and Zambia, that infrastructure projects it funded saddled them with debt they were unable to repay.
Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Chris Reese, Don Durfee and Jonathan Oatis
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sta ... 024-03-11/
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"US mulls blacklisting CXMT to curb China's chip advance, Bloomberg News says"
Reuters
March 9, 2024
March 8 (Reuters) - The United States is weighing sanctions on several Chinese tech companies, including chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, in a bid to further restrain China's development of advanced semiconductors, Bloomberg News said on Friday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, it said the commerce department's bureau of industry and security was considering adding ChangXin to the so-called entity list that restricts access to U.S. technology, along with five more Chinese firms.
The department, and the bureau did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
ChangXin Memory Technologies said it "specializes in producing commodity DRAM memory chips for everyday consumer products, with a specific focus on civilian and commercial applications."
The company complies with U.S export regulations, it said in a statement sent to Reuters on Sunday.
Reuters has reported that the United States moved last year to deny American imports to a major SMIC plant after it produced the chip powering Huawei's Mate 60 Pro phone.
The efforts halted millions of dollars worth of shipments of chipmaking materials and parts from at least one supplier, Entegris.
The United States has moved aggressively in recent months to halt shipments to China of more advanced AI chips, in its efforts to stop Beijing receiving cutting-edge U.S. technologies that could strengthen its military.
Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-m ... 024-03-09/
"US mulls blacklisting CXMT to curb China's chip advance, Bloomberg News says"
Reuters
March 9, 2024
March 8 (Reuters) - The United States is weighing sanctions on several Chinese tech companies, including chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, in a bid to further restrain China's development of advanced semiconductors, Bloomberg News said on Friday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, it said the commerce department's bureau of industry and security was considering adding ChangXin to the so-called entity list that restricts access to U.S. technology, along with five more Chinese firms.
The department, and the bureau did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
ChangXin Memory Technologies said it "specializes in producing commodity DRAM memory chips for everyday consumer products, with a specific focus on civilian and commercial applications."
The company complies with U.S export regulations, it said in a statement sent to Reuters on Sunday.
Reuters has reported that the United States moved last year to deny American imports to a major SMIC plant after it produced the chip powering Huawei's Mate 60 Pro phone.
The efforts halted millions of dollars worth of shipments of chipmaking materials and parts from at least one supplier, Entegris.
The United States has moved aggressively in recent months to halt shipments to China of more advanced AI chips, in its efforts to stop Beijing receiving cutting-edge U.S. technologies that could strengthen its military.
Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by William Mallard and Clarence Fernandez
https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-m ... 024-03-09/
Re: CHINA
Business Insider
"Iran-backed Houthis attacked a Chinese ship with missiles after promising to leave them alone"
Story by jepstein@businessinsider.com (Jake Epstein)
26 MARCH 2024
* The Houthis reportedly said they would avoid attacking Chinese ships off the coast of Yemen.
* But the Iran-backed rebels fired multiple missiles at a Beijing-owned tanker on Saturday.
* Last week, a US general warned lawmakers about deepening ties between Iran, China, and Russia.
The Houthis said they would refrain from attacking Chinese ships off the coast of Yemen, but this past weekend, the Iran-backed rebels did exactly what they said they wouldn't.
Early Saturday morning local time, the Houthis fired four anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the M/V Huang Pu, a Chinese-owned oil tanker, as the ship was transiting the Red Sea, according to US Central Command, or CENTCOM.
Hours later, the Houthis fired a fifth ballistic missile at the Huang Pu, which suffered "minimal damage" and a small fire but no casualties in the attack, CENTCOM said in a statement Saturday.
It noted that the ship issued a distress call but did not request assistance.
It was ultimately able to resume its journey.
"The Houthis attacked the M/V Huang despite previously stating they would not attack Chinese vessels," CENTCOM said.
For months, the Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack ships with ties to various countries in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
But the rebels recently signed an agreement with China and Russia to guarantee their vessels safe transit through the volatile region, in exchange for possible political support at the United Nations, Bloomberg reported last week.
China and Russia have strong diplomatic and economic ties with Iran, which is the Houthis' main backer.
Tehran, for example, supplies the rebels with advanced weaponry that they have used in their ongoing attacks.
A deepening partnership between China, Russia, and Iran
Gen. Michael Kurilla, the CENTCOM commander, warned US lawmakers last week that the three countries are strengthening their ties and "creating a chaotic landscape favorable for their exploitation and the spread of extremism."
China, Russia, and Iran "have deepened their partnership and collaboration as Iran seeks to strengthen its regional position, Russia leverages Iranian military support in Ukraine, and the PRC aims to exploit tensions in the region to afford them a position of advantage and diminishes US interests," Kurilla said in written testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
The general said that it is "noteworthy" that China buys 90% of exported Iranian oil, "which they could use to influence Iranian lethal aid to the Houthis if they chose to."
"Instead, Beijing only helps Tehran evade sanctions and accelerate its destabilization of the region," Kurilla said.
"The PRC's unwillingness, or inability, to leverage its influence has contributed to Iran's disruption of the free flow of international commerce."
And Iran's unchecked malign activities put a Chinese ship at risk.
The M/V Huang Pu is Chinese owned and operated, but it was sailing under the flag of Panama when it was attacked.
Furthermore, according to maritime security agency Ambrey, the vessel's registration details were changed last month, so it's possible that the rebels confused its identity.
Meanwhile, amid the attack on the Huang Pu on Saturday, US forces engaged six Houthi drones over the southern Red Sea.
Five of the systems crashed into the water, while the sixth flew back inland into Yemen.
"It was determined these UAVs presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region," CENTCOM said.
"These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ir ... 9861&ei=38
"Iran-backed Houthis attacked a Chinese ship with missiles after promising to leave them alone"
Story by jepstein@businessinsider.com (Jake Epstein)
26 MARCH 2024
* The Houthis reportedly said they would avoid attacking Chinese ships off the coast of Yemen.
* But the Iran-backed rebels fired multiple missiles at a Beijing-owned tanker on Saturday.
* Last week, a US general warned lawmakers about deepening ties between Iran, China, and Russia.
The Houthis said they would refrain from attacking Chinese ships off the coast of Yemen, but this past weekend, the Iran-backed rebels did exactly what they said they wouldn't.
Early Saturday morning local time, the Houthis fired four anti-ship ballistic missiles toward the M/V Huang Pu, a Chinese-owned oil tanker, as the ship was transiting the Red Sea, according to US Central Command, or CENTCOM.
Hours later, the Houthis fired a fifth ballistic missile at the Huang Pu, which suffered "minimal damage" and a small fire but no casualties in the attack, CENTCOM said in a statement Saturday.
It noted that the ship issued a distress call but did not request assistance.
It was ultimately able to resume its journey.
"The Houthis attacked the M/V Huang despite previously stating they would not attack Chinese vessels," CENTCOM said.
For months, the Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack ships with ties to various countries in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
But the rebels recently signed an agreement with China and Russia to guarantee their vessels safe transit through the volatile region, in exchange for possible political support at the United Nations, Bloomberg reported last week.
China and Russia have strong diplomatic and economic ties with Iran, which is the Houthis' main backer.
Tehran, for example, supplies the rebels with advanced weaponry that they have used in their ongoing attacks.
A deepening partnership between China, Russia, and Iran
Gen. Michael Kurilla, the CENTCOM commander, warned US lawmakers last week that the three countries are strengthening their ties and "creating a chaotic landscape favorable for their exploitation and the spread of extremism."
China, Russia, and Iran "have deepened their partnership and collaboration as Iran seeks to strengthen its regional position, Russia leverages Iranian military support in Ukraine, and the PRC aims to exploit tensions in the region to afford them a position of advantage and diminishes US interests," Kurilla said in written testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
The general said that it is "noteworthy" that China buys 90% of exported Iranian oil, "which they could use to influence Iranian lethal aid to the Houthis if they chose to."
"Instead, Beijing only helps Tehran evade sanctions and accelerate its destabilization of the region," Kurilla said.
"The PRC's unwillingness, or inability, to leverage its influence has contributed to Iran's disruption of the free flow of international commerce."
And Iran's unchecked malign activities put a Chinese ship at risk.
The M/V Huang Pu is Chinese owned and operated, but it was sailing under the flag of Panama when it was attacked.
Furthermore, according to maritime security agency Ambrey, the vessel's registration details were changed last month, so it's possible that the rebels confused its identity.
Meanwhile, amid the attack on the Huang Pu on Saturday, US forces engaged six Houthi drones over the southern Red Sea.
Five of the systems crashed into the water, while the sixth flew back inland into Yemen.
"It was determined these UAVs presented an imminent threat to US, coalition, and merchant vessels in the region," CENTCOM said.
"These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for US, coalition, and merchant vessels."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ir ... 9861&ei=38
Re: CHINA
REUTERS
"Yellen to warn China on clean energy subsidies, excess production capacity"
By David Lawder
March 27, 2024
WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday she intends to warn China about the negative effects of Beijing's subsidies for its clean energy industries, including solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs), during a visit to the country.
"I intend to talk to the Chinese when I visit about overcapacity in some of these industries, and make sure that they understand the undesirable impact that this is having - flooding the market with cheap goods - on the United States but also in many of our closest allies," Yellen told MSNBC in a live interview.
Yellen is in the state of Georgia to visit a Suniva solar cell manufacturing plant that closed in 2017 due to competition from cheaper, subsidized solar panels from China, but which is now reopening because of anticipated demand fueled by tax credits for U.S.-made clean energy technology in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
In excerpts of remarks to be delivered at the factory, Yellen said she planned to raise concerns that China is now overproducing EVs and lithium-ion batteries in the same way that it built too much capacity to make steel and aluminum, distorting global markets and hurting jobs in other industrial and developing economies.
Politico has reported that Yellen will travel to China in April.
The Treasury has declined to confirm her travel plans.
"I will convey my belief that excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also productivity and growth in the Chinese economy, as China itself acknowledged in its National People's Congress this month," Yellen said.
"And I will press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue."
Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Franklin Paul and Paul Simao
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 024-03-27/
"Yellen to warn China on clean energy subsidies, excess production capacity"
By David Lawder
March 27, 2024
WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday she intends to warn China about the negative effects of Beijing's subsidies for its clean energy industries, including solar panels and electric vehicles (EVs), during a visit to the country.
"I intend to talk to the Chinese when I visit about overcapacity in some of these industries, and make sure that they understand the undesirable impact that this is having - flooding the market with cheap goods - on the United States but also in many of our closest allies," Yellen told MSNBC in a live interview.
Yellen is in the state of Georgia to visit a Suniva solar cell manufacturing plant that closed in 2017 due to competition from cheaper, subsidized solar panels from China, but which is now reopening because of anticipated demand fueled by tax credits for U.S.-made clean energy technology in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
In excerpts of remarks to be delivered at the factory, Yellen said she planned to raise concerns that China is now overproducing EVs and lithium-ion batteries in the same way that it built too much capacity to make steel and aluminum, distorting global markets and hurting jobs in other industrial and developing economies.
Politico has reported that Yellen will travel to China in April.
The Treasury has declined to confirm her travel plans.
"I will convey my belief that excess capacity poses risks not only to American workers and firms and to the global economy, but also productivity and growth in the Chinese economy, as China itself acknowledged in its National People's Congress this month," Yellen said.
"And I will press my Chinese counterparts to take necessary steps to address this issue."
Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Franklin Paul and Paul Simao
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 024-03-27/