China Criticizes US 'Massive Subsidies to Samsung, Intel, TSMC' as "Clear Discrimination"

Heo Yadong, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce of China
Photo by Yonhap News

The Chinese government has criticized the massive subsidies provided by the U.S. government to semiconductor companies as a "clearly discriminatory measure."

He Yadong, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said at a regular briefing on the 21st in response to reporters' questions about China's stance on the U.S. subsidy moves, "The semiconductor industry is highly globalized, and through decades of development, an industry structure of 'you are in me and I am in you' has been created," adding, "For some time, the U.S. has generalized the concept of national security and abused measures such as export controls to artificially divide the global semiconductor industry chain."

The U.S. government plans to provide subsidies for semiconductor production within the U.S. to domestic semiconductor companies including Intel, as well as South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Taiwan's TSMC.

Spokesperson He said, "The U.S. providing huge subsidies and tax benefits to the mainland chip industry, and some provisions forcing companies to abandon China and choose the U.S., clearly show discrimination," adding, "This seriously violates market rules and international economic and trade rules, and will cause distortions in the global semiconductor industry chain in the future."

He added, "China maintains a high level of openness to the outside world and welcomes semiconductor companies from various countries to invest and cooperate in China, contributing to the stable and healthy development of the global semiconductor industry chain."

Earlier, the Joe Biden administration enacted the Semiconductor Support Act in 2022 to prevent a recurrence of supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 and to reduce overseas dependence on semiconductors, which are critical to security.

The core of the act is to provide a total of $39 billion (about 52.3 trillion won) in semiconductor production subsidies and $13.2 billion (about 18 trillion won) in research and development (R&D) support funds to companies building factories in the U.S., totaling $52.7 billion (about 70.7 trillion won) over five years.

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