The White House has condemned the Chinese regime for its ban on purchases of memory chips from the American company Micron on May 24, saying it’s retaliation over the recent G7 statement. However, the White House expressed that Beijing’s sanction won’t affect Washington’s efforts to improve communication with China.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby stated at a press briefing that the Chinese regime’s ban on purchases of Micron’s chips over security concerns is “just baseless.”
Kirby pointed out that Beijing’s ban is retaliation on a strong joint statement by Group of Seven (G7) leaders on May 20 to coordinate efforts to push back on coercive and unfair economic tactics used by the Chinese communist regime.
Micron Technology’s solid-state drive for data center customers at a product launch event in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2019. (Stephen Nellis/Reuters)
“It’s clearly an attempt to undermine the strong stance that was taken by the G7 against economic coercion,” Kirby said, while noting the timing of the ban rolled out by Beijing, just “one day after the G7 leaders issued their first ever statement on economic resilience and security” to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) coercive economic practices.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced on May 21 that Micron’s products had not passed a cybersecurity review and that China would be banning critical infrastructure operators from purchasing products from Micron. The CAC neither detailed what risks the investigation uncovered, nor did it specify which Micron products would be affected.
However, Beijing’s ban will only affect some of Micron’s sales in China, as the ban is currently limited to “critical information infrastructure”—most of Micron’s chips are used in electronic products such as mobile phones and personal computers, which will not be impacted.
Microchips: Focal Point of US-Sino Tech War
The battle of microchips is one of the focuses of the intensified disputes between the United States and China, as relations between the two countries have plummeted to a decades-low point.
In October 2022, the Biden administration implemented full restrictions on the export of advanced chips and chip manufacturing equipment to China, aiming to prevent the Chinese regime from using advanced chips for development of its military and surveillance equipment.
On the eve of the G7 leaders’ summit, the Japanese government invited Micron, Intel, Samsung, TSMC and other major semiconductor manufacturers to expand investment in Japan and organize a chip supply chain that does not rely on China.
(L-R) U.S. President Joe Biden, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a Quad meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 20, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Mike Gallagher, the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ committee on China, urged the Biden administration to take a tough stance on China regarding the Micron ban, and asked the Department of Commerce on May 23 to impose trade sanctions on China’s Changxin Memory (CXMT) in return.
Shen Rongqin, an associate professor at York University in Canada, told The Epoch Times that tensions between the United States and China in the technology sector will continue: “As the U.S. imposed a comprehensive semiconductors blockade on China, from IC design to advanced packaging and testing, Micron may have seen this (Beijing’s Ban) coming and prepared.”
Communications Remain Open
Kirby also stated that the White House will continue working on improving communications with Beijing despite the Micron ban. “The discussions and the lines of communication that we’re trying to keep open, remain open,” Kirby said.
He noted that U.S. President Joe Biden said in Japan during the G-7 summit last week that the Chinese spy balloon incident “changed everything” but “I think you’re going to see that begin to thaw very shortly.”
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with top Chinese official Wang Yi in Vienna earlier this month. Kirby said that the White House has also been planning potential visits to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo “to talk about economic issues.”
Lin Cenxin contributed to this report.
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