US's Strategy to Stifle Huawei: "Semiconductors Containing Our Technology Must Obtain Sales Approval"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The United States has taken a tough stance by expanding the semiconductor export ban from Chinese telecommunications equipment company Huawei to include not only U.S. domestic companies but also overseas companies outside the United States.

The U.S. is attempting to openly stifle China's leadership in information and communication technology by attracting major core semiconductor production facilities within the United States while simultaneously restricting supply to Huawei.

On the 15th (local time), the U.S. Department of Commerce announced in a statement that it has revised export regulations "strategically targeting Huawei's acquisition of semiconductors, which are direct products of certain U.S. software and technology."

Accordingly, in addition to the existing regulation that prohibits exporting semiconductors produced in the U.S. to Huawei, overseas companies using U.S. technology must also obtain U.S. permission to supply certain semiconductors to Huawei.

Huawei must also obtain U.S. government approval when purchasing semiconductors related to certain U.S. software or technology or when utilizing semiconductor designs.

This measure inevitably deals a blow to Huawei's procurement of core semiconductors used not only in 5G generation communication equipment but also in smartphones. The industry consensus is that manufacturing the latest system semiconductors without U.S. technology and equipment is difficult.

This move appears to be aimed at Taiwan's TSMC, the world's largest system semiconductor foundry, which announced the construction of a factory in Arizona just a day earlier.

TSMC is Huawei's largest semiconductor supplier. TSMC manufactures chips developed by leading semiconductor companies from the U.S. and other countries and supplies them to Huawei. Without communication semiconductors from U.S. companies Qualcomm and Intel, it would be difficult for Huawei to manufacture smartphones.

While the impact on Korean companies, which focus more on memory semiconductors than system semiconductors, may be lower, the Wall Street Journal reported that chips produced using U.S. technology in factories in China and Korea, as well as other software, could also face sales restrictions.

U.S. authorities stated that not all sales will necessarily be denied. According to major foreign media, a senior State Department official told reporters on the same day, "This regulation means that a license is required. It does not necessarily mean that the license will be denied."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.