2023-09-10 16:39:13
Huawei’s recent launch of its latest smartphone has raised questions regarding whether the Chinese Communist Party has breached U.S. sanctions. Recently, more and more methods used by the Chinese Communist Party to circumvent U.S. chip sanctions have been disclosed. (Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images)
[The Epoch Times, September 10, 2023](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times Special Topics Department reporter Wu Huanxin) Recently, Huawei launched its latest smartphone, raising questions regarding whether the Chinese Communist Party has broken through U.S. sanctions. The various methods used by the Chinese Communist Party to evade U.S. chip sanctions have recently been disclosed more and more.
As U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo concluded his visit to China a few days ago, Chinese communications equipment company Huawei launched its new smartphone Mate 60 Pro. The new Kirin 9000s chip used in the Mate 60 Pro is equipped with an advanced 7-nanometer chip developed by the Chinese company SMIC. Although it has not reached the most advanced level, the launch of Huawei’s Kirin 9000s chip still caused the outside world to question whether the CCP has broken through U.S. sanctions. doubts.
Huawei was placed on the trade control blacklist by the United States in 2019, and was placed on the entity list by the United States in September 2020, making it no longer possible to cooperate with TSMC in the production of Kirin chips.
On the other hand, following the Mate 60 Pro was disassembled, it was also discovered that smartphone-specific LPDDR5 chips and NAND flash memory chips manufactured by Korean chip giant SK Hynix were discovered. But how Huawei obtained SK Hynix chips is still unclear.
SK Hynix clarified that following the United States imposed sanctions on Huawei, the company fully implemented the U.S. government’s export restrictions and has stopped business dealings with Huawei. SK hynix also said that it had reported the incident to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security and launched an investigation to understand what happened.
At present, the U.S. government has officially launched an investigation into the advanced Chinese-made chips in Huawei’s new mobile phones, and there are also voices in the U.S. Congress to tighten sanctions on the Chinese Communist Party’s chips.
In order to evade U.S. sanctions in the semiconductor field, the CCP has used various tricks in recent years to defraud and plunder semiconductor talents and equipment.
Used name to buy US chip equipment and build secret chip factory
The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) warned last month (August) that Huawei has been involved in the chip manufacturing industry since last year and is purchasing U.S. semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the name of other companies to establish a secret semiconductor manufacturing industry chain in China. to avoid sanctions from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
SIA also revealed that Huawei has received approximately US$30 billion in support from the Chinese government and has acquired at least two existing factories so far and is building a third factory.
The SIA’s statement means that Huawei may have bypassed U.S. restrictions and indirectly purchased U.S. chip manufacturing equipment.
In addition, following the U.S. government imposed restrictions on the export of high-end computer chips last September, a black market for chips emerged in China, such as the electronic market in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen. Suppliers in this electronic market are selling the A100 artificial intelligence chip produced by Nvidia, the top American chip manufacturer, at double the original price.
According to Archyde.com, suppliers mainly obtain these chips in two ways. One is to snap up excess inventory that flows into the market following NVIDIA has shipped bulk shipments to large US companies, and the other is to import through local companies registered in Taiwan, Singapore and India.
South Korea’s famous English-language business monthly “Business Korea” reported in August that there was speculation that the Chinese Communist Party may also have imported U.S.-controlled semiconductor equipment through friendly countries.
According to United Nations trade statistics, Malaysia’s imports from the world’s three largest semiconductor equipment countries, the United States, the Netherlands and Japan, increased by US$580 million last year, an annual increase of 127.7%. What is noteworthy is that China’s imports of semiconductor equipment from Malaysia also increased to US$590 million.
“Korea Business” said that the market believes that China may bypass Malaysia to avoid US semiconductor equipment export restrictions. In addition, more and more South Korean headhunting companies have recently recruited semiconductor experts for Chinese companies, but they have not disclosed the names of these Chinese companies.
Secretly recruiting chip experts to try to acquire chip companies
In fact, the CCP did not just start recruiting overseas talents recently. It launched the “Thousand Talents Plan” as early as 2008. However, the plan was forced to be suspended following the United States regarded it as an industrial espionage operation led by the Chinese government and launched an investigation. But now it has quietly changed its name to “Qiming Project” and is making a comeback.
The CCP is recruiting overseas talents through the “Qiming Plan” and providing incentives such as housing subsidies and high signing bonuses.
In addition, the CCP is also trying to acquire semiconductor companies in other countries. In 2021, Chinese private equity fund (PEF) Zhilu Capital had hoped to acquire South Korean system chip manufacturer Magna Semiconductor for US$1.4 billion, but Magna Semiconductor is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and any sale requires U.S. U.S. authorities eventually banned the sale on national security grounds, causing the deal to fail.
Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua#
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