The US government has decided to restrict exports to China Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), saying there is an “unacceptable risk” as equipment supplied could be used for military purposes in China, Reuters reported, citing a letter from the Commerce Department. The move means US companies wishing to sell equipment to SMIC will have to apply for a licence. US companies such as Lam Research, KLA Corp and Applied Materials, which supply chipmaking equipment, may need to get licenses to ship certain goods to SMIC.
Reuters noted that this marks a shift in US policy. Its sources said that applicants seeking “military end user” licenses to sell to SMIC earlier this year were told by the Commerce Department that the licenses were not necessary.
SMIC said it had not received any official notice of the restrictions. The company said it has no ties with the Chinese military and reiterated it manufactures semiconductors and provides services solely for civilian and commercial end-users and end-uses.
SMIC’s new designation is not as severe as being blacklisted on the so called Entity List, which makes it difficult to get any export license approved. The US government earlier added Huawei to its Entity List, imposing license requirements for products set for export. It has designated both Huawei and ZTE as threats to its national security. It has also seeking to ban TikTok and WeChat, also because of national security concerns, and has started looking into data protocols with Tencent.
