China’s semiconductor roll continues under all-round pressure from the U.S. Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, has been found to be secretly building large-scale semiconductor manufacturing facilities based on strong support from the authorities. Recruitment of overseas science and technology talent, which had been suspended by U.S. regulations, has also been secretly revived.
Citing data from the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), Bloomberg reported on the 23rd (local time) that Huawei, which is on the U.S. export blacklist, is secretly building semiconductor manufacturing facilities across China.
According to SIA, Huawei has entered semiconductor production since last year with about 30 billion dollars from the Chinese central government and Shenzhen. It is estimated that more than two existing factories have already been acquired and more than three new factories are being built. If Huawei builds or acquires a semiconductor plant under the name of another company, it can buy semiconductor equipment overseas to avoid U.S. Commerce Department sanctions. You have a kind of ‘bypass’.
In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act banning the use of Huawei products, saying, “A backdoor (secret access passage) for the Chinese Communist Party was found in Huawei telecommunications equipment.” The following year, the U.S. Department of Commerce also blacklisted Huawei for exports and blocked parts and software transactions with its companies. Huawei suffered a devastating blow to smartphone production as it was blocked from manufacturing and importing semiconductors for 5G communication and was unable to access Android operating system (OS). As a result, Huawei is looking for new businesses in various fields, and semiconductor production seems to be one of them.
Currently, China is pouring astronomical funds into the success of semiconductor rolling. According to SIA, China plans to invest more than $100 billion to build 23 semiconductor plants by 2030. Some analysts say that the reason why China does not come up with large-scale stimulus measures despite the economic slowdown, which is feared to cause deflation, is because it invests resources in the semiconductor industry.
