On April 26th, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to National Public Radio and clarified that the strict export controls over advanced computer chips to China are not meant to harm China’s economy or technological development. The US has been implementing these controls since 2018, affecting sales from companies such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. Despite this, the US has granted at least two licenses to Intel and Qualcomm to continue shipping chips to Huawei Technologies.
The granting of these licenses has raised concerns among some Republican Party Congressmen. However, Blinken emphasized that these exceptions are made based on national security concerns and are not intended to hinder China’s technology development. He also noted that the licenses granted to Intel and Qualcomm were authorized during the Trump administration and remain in effect under President Biden.
It is worth noting that competitors like AMD and MediaTek did not receive similar exceptions, raising questions as to why these decisions were made by both administrations. During his visit to Beijing earlier this year, Blinken sought to reassure China that the US’s focus is on security concerns and not on restricting trade with China. Overall, it seems that while there may be some disagreements over the specifics of these export controls, the US government is committed to balancing national security interests with economic cooperation with its trading partners.
