China will launch an investigation into US government subsidies to its semiconductor sector at the request of China’s mature node chip industry, the Ministry of Commerce announced Thursday.
Unlike next-generation chips used to power artificial intelligence, mature node chips are larger and used for less complex tasks, such as home appliances and communications systems.
“The Biden administration has provided a large amount of subsidies to the chip industry, and US companies have thus gained an unfair competitive advantage and exported relevant mature node chip products to China at low prices, undermining human rights.” and legitimate interests of Chinese domestic industry,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The US Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment on the Chinese investigation.
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Beijing’s accusation against the US government
It echoes the Biden administration’s reasoning in announcing a tariff hike on all Chinese chip imports in September and an investigation into China’s mature node chip industry last month, of which the US Trade Representative , Katherine Tai, said it had expanded capacity, artificially lowered prices and harmed competition using Chinese state funds.
Although it is unclear what retaliatory measures will result from the Chinese government’s investigation, American companies such as Intel, which derive much of their revenue from selling mature node chips to the Chinese market, could be affected.
Over the past three years, Washington has tightened export controls targeting the sale of advanced American-made artificial intelligence chips to China.
With information from Reuters.
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