China chip industry group ‘troubled’ by U.S. export curbs

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s top trade group for the chip sector said on Thursday it was “disappointed” by recent U.S. export controls and warned they could put more stress on global supply chains.

Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department passed a sweeping set of regulations aimed at kneecapping advancements in China’s semiconductor industry.

If enforced broadly, the regulations could bar research labs and commercial data centres’ access to advanced AI chips, prevent Chinese chip fabs from purchasing critical manufacturing equipment, and force U.S. nationals working at advanced Chinese chip companies to resign.

“Not only will such unilateral measure harm the further global supply chain of the semiconductor industry, more importantly it will create an atmosphere of uncertainty, which will negatively affect the trust, goodwill, and spirit of cooperation that the players of the global semiconductor industry have carefully cultivated over the past decades,” the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) said in a statement.

The CSIA added that it hoped the U.S. government would “adjust the course of action” and “return to the well-established framework of the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) and the Government and Authority Meeting on Semiconductor (GAMS)”

The WSC and GAMS are two global trade forums, established in 1996 and 1999 respectively, where member regions discuss development and policy for the chip sector.

Share prices of Chinese tech giants and chip companies with facilities in China plunged in response to the U.S. curbs. In recent days, the U.S. government has been hurriedly offering some foreign chipmakers extensions to avert supply problems.

(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Tom Hogue and Kim Coghill)