US sanctions help vaporize chunk of Chinese chip barons’ wealth
(2022/12/20)
- Reference: 1671568211
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/20/us_sanctions_china_chips/
- Source link:
US chip sanctions against China have tag-teamed with a weaker economy to vaporize a chunk of the wealth held by the Middle Kingdom's richest semiconductor business owners.
The cumulative wealth of China's top 100 money-making chip barons declined 28 percent in 2022 versus last year, South China Morning Post [1]reported , citing a survey by Chinese-language site Ijiwei.com. At the same time, the number of silicon tycoons in China with more than 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) in personal wealth fell to 17 in 2022 from 22 the previous year.
It's a reversal of fortunes for China's chip magnates, who have amassed wealth in recent years due to the government's push for self-sufficiency in semiconductors.
[2]
This wealth has diminished in part because of the strong ties between China's government and industry. These ties are mandated by the country's "military-civil fusion" doctrine, where private firms must share their technologies with its military.
[3]
[4]
Across the Trump and Biden administrations, the US government has cited this doctrine as a primary reason for [5]growing [6]trade [7]restrictions against Chinese firms over the past two years. In October, the White House cited America's national security and foreign policy interests as the drivers for new export restrictions on advanced chips and chip-making tools to China.
Chinese chipmakers have [8]reportedly sounded the alarm over the recent US export restrictions on state-of-the-art chip technology, saying the trade bans will be extremely harmful to their businesses. It is worth noting, however, that the American sanctions are expected to have a [9]broader impact across the globe, raising prices for consumers and businesses due to an increasingly fractured supply chain.
[10]Let the chips fall where they may: US Commerce dept whacks Middle Kingdom firm SMIC on naughty list
[11]US bans Chinese firms – including one linked to HPE's China JV – for feeding tech to Beijing's military
[12]Biden expands Chinese tech and military blocklist to 59 companies
[13]US chip war could hurt the West as Beijing moves to ramp up its own industry
Things have gotten even worse for some silicon firms in the Middle Kingdom since the new sanctions were introduced. [14]Last week , YMTC, China's biggest domestic flash memory supplier, was placed alongside 35 other local operations on the US Department of Commerce's so-called Entity List .
The American blacklist requires impacted companies to receive a special license to import certain US technologies. For YMTC, this means it isn't just blocked from accessing advanced chip-making equipment in tools, it's also banned from procuring other kinds of supplies it needs to produce flash memory chips, unless it obtains a special license from the US. In some cases that'll mean when Satan goes to work on a snowplow.
[15]
Analysts [16]said being placed on the Entity List could hinder YMTC's production capabilities, and it may even be forced to exit the market for 3D NAND, a crucial technology for advanced storage and memory devices. US restrictions against YMTC prompted Taiwanese research firm TrendForce to dramatically revise its 2003 growth rate projection for 2023, from an expected 60 percent year-over-year increase to a 7 percent decline.
The other issue troubling Chinese chipmakers is that the country's economy has taken a significant hit from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as plummeting global demand. Economists have projected that China's economic growth will range between 2.8 percent and 3.2 percent, a level not seen since 1976. This has prompted [17]plans by Beijing to prioritize stabilizing the economy next year.
Whether the People's Republic of China can boost its economy enough to counteract the impact of US sanctions remains to be seen. White House officials [18]are curious to see if China will change its tune around policy when a new economic minister is appointed early next year. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3203994/tech-war-personal-wealth-top-chinese-semiconductor-bosses-shrinks-amid-us-sanctions?utm_source=feedly_feed
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/18/smic_us_ban/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/biden_expands_blocklist/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/25/us_chinese_ban/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/21/economic_cold_war_looms_as/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/beijing_ramping_up_semiconductors/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/18/smic_us_ban/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/25/us_chinese_ban/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/biden_expands_blocklist/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/beijing_ramping_up_semiconductors/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/16/us_bans_companies_it_suspects/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/18/us_blacklist_spells_trouble/
[17] https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/business/china-private-sector-covid-hit-economy-intl-hnk/index.html
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/19/gpus_us_tariff_china/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The cumulative wealth of China's top 100 money-making chip barons declined 28 percent in 2022 versus last year, South China Morning Post [1]reported , citing a survey by Chinese-language site Ijiwei.com. At the same time, the number of silicon tycoons in China with more than 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) in personal wealth fell to 17 in 2022 from 22 the previous year.
It's a reversal of fortunes for China's chip magnates, who have amassed wealth in recent years due to the government's push for self-sufficiency in semiconductors.
[2]
This wealth has diminished in part because of the strong ties between China's government and industry. These ties are mandated by the country's "military-civil fusion" doctrine, where private firms must share their technologies with its military.
[3]
[4]
Across the Trump and Biden administrations, the US government has cited this doctrine as a primary reason for [5]growing [6]trade [7]restrictions against Chinese firms over the past two years. In October, the White House cited America's national security and foreign policy interests as the drivers for new export restrictions on advanced chips and chip-making tools to China.
Chinese chipmakers have [8]reportedly sounded the alarm over the recent US export restrictions on state-of-the-art chip technology, saying the trade bans will be extremely harmful to their businesses. It is worth noting, however, that the American sanctions are expected to have a [9]broader impact across the globe, raising prices for consumers and businesses due to an increasingly fractured supply chain.
[10]Let the chips fall where they may: US Commerce dept whacks Middle Kingdom firm SMIC on naughty list
[11]US bans Chinese firms – including one linked to HPE's China JV – for feeding tech to Beijing's military
[12]Biden expands Chinese tech and military blocklist to 59 companies
[13]US chip war could hurt the West as Beijing moves to ramp up its own industry
Things have gotten even worse for some silicon firms in the Middle Kingdom since the new sanctions were introduced. [14]Last week , YMTC, China's biggest domestic flash memory supplier, was placed alongside 35 other local operations on the US Department of Commerce's so-called Entity List .
The American blacklist requires impacted companies to receive a special license to import certain US technologies. For YMTC, this means it isn't just blocked from accessing advanced chip-making equipment in tools, it's also banned from procuring other kinds of supplies it needs to produce flash memory chips, unless it obtains a special license from the US. In some cases that'll mean when Satan goes to work on a snowplow.
[15]
Analysts [16]said being placed on the Entity List could hinder YMTC's production capabilities, and it may even be forced to exit the market for 3D NAND, a crucial technology for advanced storage and memory devices. US restrictions against YMTC prompted Taiwanese research firm TrendForce to dramatically revise its 2003 growth rate projection for 2023, from an expected 60 percent year-over-year increase to a 7 percent decline.
The other issue troubling Chinese chipmakers is that the country's economy has taken a significant hit from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as plummeting global demand. Economists have projected that China's economic growth will range between 2.8 percent and 3.2 percent, a level not seen since 1976. This has prompted [17]plans by Beijing to prioritize stabilizing the economy next year.
Whether the People's Republic of China can boost its economy enough to counteract the impact of US sanctions remains to be seen. White House officials [18]are curious to see if China will change its tune around policy when a new economic minister is appointed early next year. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3203994/tech-war-personal-wealth-top-chinese-semiconductor-bosses-shrinks-amid-us-sanctions?utm_source=feedly_feed
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/18/smic_us_ban/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/biden_expands_blocklist/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/25/us_chinese_ban/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/21/economic_cold_war_looms_as/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/beijing_ramping_up_semiconductors/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/18/smic_us_ban/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/25/us_chinese_ban/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/biden_expands_blocklist/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/beijing_ramping_up_semiconductors/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/16/us_bans_companies_it_suspects/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y6I@jnMB7YzRtCEeHoU@9wAAAJc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/18/us_blacklist_spells_trouble/
[17] https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/business/china-private-sector-covid-hit-economy-intl-hnk/index.html
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/19/gpus_us_tariff_china/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Two decades too late
Claptrap314
When I man says he is your enemy--believe him.
If we had taken the Chinese government at their word 20, 30 years ago, we would have never allowed them access to our high tech. This would have bought us at least a couple of decades before they could seriously threaten us. It looks like we are going to sorely miss those decades...
'Their' MIC versus 'our' MIC
President Eisenhower was the first person to openly call out what he called "the Military Industrial Complex", the unholy alliance of government and weapons providers that feed off one another. To a certain extent this is inevitable -- somebody's got to make the guns -- but at some critical financial mass the providers stop responding to policy and start driving it. This has been the case in both the UK and the US for decades now (the UK was the first to abandon work on technology in favor of exclusive (and more profitable) government contracts). This picture (taken from an article on the Vox website) pretty much sums it up....
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-MaZDfBRMS0NoCWp3FrJuWDPNn8=/0x0:1688x1229/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1688x1229):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24293748/invitation.jpg
(The only thing left is to put the corporate logos onto the actual military hardware.)
So far I don't see the Chinese MIC being on quite the same scale. Their economy is mostly oriented towards consumer and industrial production. Obviously we in 'the west' have to stoke the case for more military spending so we're doing whatever the modern version of the 1950's era 'missile gap' (which in retrospect wasn't). We need enemies because without them a large chunk of our economy would fall apart so in the absence of anything suitable from the Middle East we're back to the old bogeymen. The idea that we're succeeding in our endeavors, though ("We're Winning, See, They're Broke!" -- spoken from a perspective of spiraling deficits, inflation, people getting poorer and all that good stuff) is critical to help build momentum.
(Those of us who've had a play with Chat GPT will never believe a news article or press release again...)