WSJ: "U.S. has long sought to limit the development of China’s semiconductor industry"

The U.S. has long sought to limit the development of China’s semiconductor industry by placing companies on the Commerce Department’s export blacklist, including telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co. and its largest chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. The clampdown intensified amid the trade wars of the Trump administration, and the Biden administration has largely picked up where its predecessor left off. 

The semiconductor industry was born in the U.S. but has shifted outside of the country in recent decades, mostly to Taiwan, South Korea and China, a state of affairs U.S. officials and legislators see as a worrying national-security vulnerability. Advanced chips are increasingly a pillar of geopolitical power, underpinning both military systems and data-processing capabilities that drive modern economies. 

As it places more restrictions on China, the Commerce Department is preparing to roll out tax breaks, factory-building grants and research funding to try to bring more of the semiconductor industry back to the U.S. The funding, worth nearly $77 billion in total, was passed by Congress in July and signed by President Biden in August.

~ Asa Fitch and John D. McKinnon, "U.S. Seeks to Further Restrict Cutting-Edge Chip Exports to China," The Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2022