Next week China Tech Threat and the Coalition for a Prosperous America will release a new report detailing the dangers an impending – if not already consummated – deal between Apple, the world’s largest company, and YMTC, a Chinese state-subsidized semiconductor manufacturer with deep ties to the Chinese military.
The report is one the Chinese government doesn’t want you to read.
CTT has already spent months sounding the alarm on the dangers of an Apple-YMTC agreement. If reports from March are to be believed, Apple is already shipping versions of the iPhone 14 with YMTC chips. The presence of Chinese-made chips inside the world’s most popular smartphone presents massive risks to the security and privacy of the American people. The Chinese government is eager to weaponize Americans’ data against them and exploit technological vulnerabilities for military and economic superiority.
What makes the CTT-CPA report new is a detailed articulation of how the Apple-YMTC deal will reshape the global market for memory chips and damage the viability of the companies located in democratic nations that produce them.
Ultimately, as the report lays down definitively, the deal gives China a substantial lift toward its goal to dominate the global semiconductor market. To give just a taste of the analysis, the report states, “An Apple choice of YMTC to supply NAND memory in any version of the iPhone 14 would be the greatest victory for the Chinese semiconductor industry in its short and checkered history. It would lift YMTC into the stratosphere of chipmakers.”
The report will also offer recommendations to policymakers for how to mitigate the threat of YMTC chips flooding America and the world, beginning with Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industrial Security placing YMTC on the Entity List and simultaneously applying the Foreign Direct Product Rule. Stay tuned for the full report launching next week.