In advance of Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Under Secretary Alan Estevez’s appearance before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee July 14 hearing on export controls, China Tech Threat issued a memo to congressional staff and interested parties on BIS’ failure to apply China-related export controls. The memo highlights the potential dissonance between Estevez’s stated long-term priority to “stop [China] from using our technology against us” and Secretary Raimondo’s assertion that “selling a commodity product to a Chinese company is in and of itself not problematic.”
It also poses a set of key questions that would help clarify Commerce Department’s position on employing China-focused export controls:
- Does the Commerce Department plan to impose export controls in response to the threat from YMTC? If not, why not?
- Does Secretary Raimondo share Under Secretary Estevez’s view that China is a priority issue for the Bureau of Industry and Security? If yes, why hasn’t more action been taken?
- Have American semiconductor manufacturing equipment firms such as Applied Materials, KLA, and Lam Research lobbied Secretary Raimondo and/or Alan Estevez against controls on YMTC and related entities? What about Apple?
- What is the justification for the Commerce Department lobbying the Netherlands to impose new export controls on chipmaking technologies bound for China, while the U.S. takes no corresponding action?
You can read CTT’s memo here. In addition, you can read CTT’s FOIA release here.