Economic Security

4 Export Control Fallacies and Their Rebuttals

Posted on by China Tech Threat
By Steve Coonen Writing in the Wall Street Journal last week, professors Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman criticize American export control policies as having the potential to create more problems then they solve. Pointing the finger at America as a force for destabilization is divorced from the reality of the global export control landscape. China’s commitment to using American technologies to build up its military has necessitated export controls targeting the country’s chip sector. Here are four fallacies promoted in the article (in italics) and my rebuttals: Fallacy #1: The U.S. is to blame for export control-related global disruptions “A new tit-for-tat is emerging, and as China responds to the turn in American policy, there is a risk that the… Read More

Actions Speak Louder than Words—So Where’s the Action from the Commerce Department?

Posted on by China Tech Threat
“Actions speak louder than words” was the refrain from Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on CBS’ Face the Nation last Sunday. Raimondo is referring to what she hopes to see from the Chinese government following her meetings in Beijing last week—not just promises of change, but concrete steps. The world shouldn’t hold its breath waiting for them. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can’t be trusted to uphold its promises—just ask the citizens of Hong Kong, who have seen their autonomy revoked in the last several years. Or maybe President Obama, to whom Xi Jinping made promises in 2015 that the CCP would stop militarizing the South China Sea. Or other nations in Asia, which are recently outraged after China released a… Read More

Congress’ Narrow Inquiry into U.S. Investment in China is not a Winning Strategy

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Writing in The Washington Times this week, Roslyn Layton examined the current inconsistencies in the United States’ regulatory approach towards curbing investment in Chinese military proxies. As we covered recently, President Biden issued an executive order that would require “U.S. firms to notify the federal government if they invest in some lower-end semiconductor production not already covered by export controls.”  In Congress, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent letters to financial firms BlackRock and MSCI this month, notifying their CEO’s that the Committee was investing the companies’ investments into certain Chinese companies. The letter states “Americans are now unwittingly funding PRC companies” that develop technologies for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Layton notes that this… Read More

Actions Speak Louder Than Words – Willful Blindness Series Recap

Posted on by China Tech Threat
With Labor Day around the corner, the unofficial end of summer is almost here. So, here’s our final plug for beach reading from CTT special advisor Steve Coonen. Coonen, who spent more than two decades in uniform as an Army artillery and foreign affairs officer and then nearly 14 years as an analyst at the Defense Technology and Security Administration (DTSA), wrote a nine-part summer series for CTT on America’s broken export control system.  The need to expose the administration’s willful blindless as it relates to export controls could not be more timely. Multiple outlets are reporting that one outcome of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China is an agreement between the U.S. and China to begin a series… Read More

Ca$h Over Country: Biden Administration Must Stop U.S. American Chipmaker

Posted on by China Tech Threat
With Secretary of Commerce Raimondo visiting China this weekend, Dr. Roslyn Layton penned an op-ed for the National Security Institute demanding the Biden Administration stop American semiconductor equipment manufacturers from profiting on the Chinese legacy chip sector. Rather than seek new economic cooperation with China, Dr. Layton argues the Secretary should be focused on preventing the sale of some of the world’s most sensitive tech equipment to legacy chipmakers. The problem is that three American companies – Applied Materials, KLA, and Lam Research – have made billions selling their chipmaking tools, including for legacy chips, to China. Dr. Layton notes: “As can be documented from public data, these three companies have grown their combined revenues from China by 102% between… Read More

CTT-CPA “Ca$h Over Country” Report Exposes How Three U.S. Toolmakers Are Boosting Dangerous Chinese Legacy Chipmakers

Posted on by China Tech Threat
A new report co-authored by Coalition for a Prosperous America Chief Economist Jeff Ferry and CTT co-founder Roslyn Layton reveals how American semiconductor equipment manufacturing companies are earning billions from Chinese legacy chip manufacturers. That bad choice is undermining American national and economic security: American semiconductor equipment manufacturers (SEMs) have succeeded in lobbying the U.S. government to permit them to sell some of the world’s most complex technology to Chinese government-aligned firms making legacy chips. As can be documented from public data, American SEMs Applied Materials, KLA, and Lam Research have grown their combined revenues from China by 103% between 2018 and 2022. .kb-image_8d3de2-89 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;} The Department of Commerce’s mission is to foster economic growth, and also to prevent adversaries… Read More

National Security is Economic Security

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Last week, the White House released the much anticipated Executive Order on outbound investment. As Politico notably reported in a preview story, President Biden’s action will require “U.S. firms to notify the federal government if they invest in some lower-end semiconductor production not already covered by export controls.” This is a step in the right direction and comes as the Administration is starting to wake up to the threat of a China-dominated legacy chip market. But more needs to be done. .kb-image9510_bbe45b-0f.kb-image-is-ratio-size, .kb-image9510_bbe45b-0f .kb-image-is-ratio-size{max-width:372px;width:100%;}.kb-image9510_bbe45b-0f figure{max-width:372px;}.kb-image9510_bbe45b-0f .image-is-svg, .kb-image9510_bbe45b-0f .image-is-svg img{width:100%;}.kb-image9510_bbe45b-0f .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;} Financial Times columnist Rana Foroohar reacted to the Executive Order in a piece aptly titled, “The US now accepts national and economic security can’t be separated.” She says: [W]estern technology… Read More

Challenges Still Loom Large on the Eve of the CHIPS Act One Year Anniversary

Posted on by China Tech Threat
On August 9th of last year, President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act to restore American semiconductor manufacturing. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo described the impetus in response to China’s ominous ambitions: Over the past decade, China’s leaders have made clear that they do not plan to pursue political and economic reform and are instead pursuing an alternative vision of their country’s future… [T]hey are accelerating their efforts to fuse their economic and technology policies with their military ambitions. … Semiconductors are ground-zero… As we approach the one-year anniversary, four challenges remain paramount:  #1. U.S. Export Controls Still Ignore Legacy Chinese Manufacturers  Legacy (or mature) chips are critical to defense systems, critical infrastructure, automobiles, medical devices, consumer electronics, and other… Read More

Raimondo Email Hacked, Huawei-SMIC Teaming Up – China’s Not Slowing Down

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Yesterday, news broke that Chinese cyberspies hacked into emails at the U.S. Commerce and State Departments. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was among those affected. According to The Washington Post, officials said the hackers were “looking for information useful to the Chinese government” and “had access to the email accounts for about a month before the issue was discovered and access cut off.” This brazen intrusion isn’t surprising, since Commerce has gotten tougher on China with export controls to protect our national security, most notably through its October 2022 action to restrict China’s advanced semiconductor capabilities. Ironically, The New York Times Magazine published a lengthy piece the same day the hacker story broke called “‘An Act of War’: Inside America’s Silicon Blockage Against China.” The article poses an important… Read More

Virginia Must Try Again to Prohibit Dangerous China Tech Purchases

Posted on by China Tech Threat
In January 2023, Delegate Emily Brewer sponsored House Bill 2385, which would prohibit state agencies from entering into contracts for goods or services with scrutinized companies. Unfortunately, the bill was weakened by a carve out for companies approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and ultimately failed. Given the more than $5 million the state spent on restricted Chinese technology from Lexmark and Lenovo in recent years, Delegate Brewer’s leadership should be commended, and we urge Virginia lawmakers to take up this issue again to protect Virginia residents’ sensitive data.  China Tech Threat’s (CTT) research reveals Virginia spent $5,786,482 on this risky Chinese technology by manufacturers already restricted by U.S. military and intelligence agencies due to… Read More