Alan Estevez

Why BIS Should Put Components for Legacy Semiconductors Under Export Controls

Posted on by China Tech Threat
By Steve Coonen Last week, Chairman Mike Gallagher of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party spoke a plain truth: “Every foreign business that enters China takes on a sometimes silent, sometimes not-so-silent business partner: the Chinese Communist Party.” This reality continues to play out in the legacy semiconductor space. The more that American companies are allowed to sell components and manufacturing equipment for legacy chips to China, the more power the CCP will acquire to shape American national and economic security. When it comes to focusing on the danger of advanced or legacy Chinese chips, the U.S. government should reject a false choice of “either/or.” It must embrace a “both/and” concept and act to prevent a looming… Read More

NO WEAK LINKS – New White Paper Coming Next Week

Posted on by China Tech Threat
On February 28, Congresswoman Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen asked BIS Under Secretary Alan Estevez, “How many PRC chips are you comfortable having in DoD systems and critical infrastructure?” In response, Mr. Estevez said that BIS focused only on high-tech chips, basically conceding that the U.S. government intends to do nothing to curtail the Chinese legacy chip sector. That means U.S. military systems may continue to rely on semiconductors from Chinese companies. (Learn more at EveryChipMatters.com.) This is a very big problem. Next week CTT will publish No Weak Links: A Strategy for Keeping U.S. Supply Chains Clean of Dangerous Chinese Technologies, a new white paper written in consultation with CTT Special Advisor Nazak Nikakhtar. From 2018 to 2021, Ms. Nikakhtar… Read More

HFAC Hearing Recap: McCaul Calls Out BIS on SMIC, Estevez Offers Mixed Bag on New Export Controls

Posted on by China Tech Threat
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul wasted no time yesterday in taking a hard line on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) approach to Chinese semiconductor firm Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). Said McCaul: “In just one recent six-month time period, BIS approved licenses worth $60 billion to Huawei and $40 billion to SMIC, their semiconductor company. Both of these companies are military companies for the CCP. And both are listed on the Entity List. BIS continues to mindlessly greenlight sensitive technology sales, and the CCP has proven they will use our own inventions against us.” McCaul’s broadside against SMIC is justified, since researchers such as James Mulvenon have definitively connected SMIC to the Chinese military. To his… Read More

Five Pressing Questions for BIS Director Alan Estevez

Posted on by China Tech Threat
The House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) announced that BIS Under Secretary Alan Estevez will participate in a hearing on Tuesday morning at 10 AM on “Combatting the Generational Challenge of CCP Aggression.” The hearing should come as no surprise. Last June, Congressman McCaul told reporters that he planned to “focus like a laser on export control issues” once he became Chairman, adding that BIS “puts too much emphasis on industry and very little if nothing on security and that has to change.” Given his national security background, which is much needed at BIS at a time like this, China Tech Threat supported a vote for Mr. Estevez in the lead up to his March 2022 confirmation. We also applauded BIS’s… Read More

New CTT Memo on Export Controls: “Five Areas to Watch During This Critical 60 Day Window”

Posted on by China Tech Threat
On October 27, China Tech Threat released a new memo calling attention to five priority areas worthy of attention in the wake of the Department of Commerce’s new China-focused export controls issued on October 7. The new set of rules have been described as “wreaking havoc on China’s chip industry” and “strangling with intent to kill.” But it’s hard to gauge their full impact after only three weeks. Alan Estevez, the Under Secretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security, has said “we are not done” on focusing on the Chinese semiconductor sector. We’re now 20 days into an important 60 day window that will mark a critical time for analysts, reporters, and industry observers to assess how serious the… Read More

Estevez Senate Hearing: Mixed Messages on YMTC Continue

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Under Secretary Alan Estevez testified to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday about issues related to U.S. Export Controls. There is still no clarity what the U.S. government’s stance is on Chinese military-linked chipmaker YMTC. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia told Estevez that American memory chip manufacturers have complained to him about YMTC’s activities, which he said are “typical of a lot of the new Chinese memory and chip-related firms.” That is to say, they are tied to the Chinese military and benefit from massive subsidies designed to kill off foreign competitors. Sen. Warner also noted a recent Financial Times story detailing YMTC’s ties to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications firm on the Commerce Department’s… Read More

“They Are Going to Be on the Bad Boy List” – BIS Under Secretary Alan Estevez Hints at Tough Export Control Actions

Posted on by China Tech Threat
At an event promoting the launch of the Global Tech Security Commission – a project of the Atlantic Council and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy – former State Department Under Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Keith Krach interviewed Alan Estevez, currently the Commerce Department’s Under Secretary Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). In what he described as “my coming out party” since being confirmed as Under Secretary on March 31st, Estevez conveyed that his job really could be titled “chief technology protection officer of the United States.” While acknowledging that Russia remains a challenge, Estevez made clear that his major focus is “China, China, China.” His top long term priority is to “stop them from using our technology… Read More

CTT Quick Cut: BIS Is at an “Inflection Point,” Should “Rebalance Economics and Security”

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Last week Congress confirmed Alan Estevez to serve as Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security, finally filling the top post at the “most important agency most Americans have never heard of.” Mr. Estevez’s confirmation comes at a critical juncture, and he inherits a full slate of issues to address. China Tech Threat Co-Founder Dr. Roslyn Layton was joined by Kevin Wolf, former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, and Dr. Derek Scissors, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, for the latest CTT Quick Cut, “Competing Views on the Future of BIS,” where Mr. Estevez and the agency’s priorities were the focus of discussion. Setting an Agenda at BIS Mr. Estevez needs to take the lead on setting… Read More

China Tech Threat Applauds Confirmation of Alan Estevez to Lead BIS

Posted on by China Tech Threat
China Tech Threat applauds the confirmation of Alan Estevez to lead the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which is the most important agency most Americans have never heard of. Mr. Estevez brings unprecedented experience to the role with some 30 years in defense, supply chain, and logistics. It has been 5 years since there was a confirmed BIS Director, and 9 months since Mr. Estevez was nominated. The clock has been ticking, and as Mira Ricardel, former Deputy National Security Advisor and BIS Under Secretary for Export Administration, told us, “The only parties that benefit from a lack of senior leadership at BIS are our adversaries.” China Tech Threat Co-Founder Roslyn Layton, PhD welcomed the news… Read More

The Clock is Ticking: #VoteEstevezNow

Posted on by China Tech Threat
This week China Tech Threat (CTT) launched a new campaign around the urgency for the Senate to confirm the next Director of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS). It has been five years since the last confirmed BIS Director and seven months since President Biden nominated Alan Estevez, a national security veteran, to take the post. We’ve written extensively about the importance of BIS, calling it the most important agency most Americans have never heard of. Tasked with ensuring an effective export control system to promote America’s strategic technology leadership, the agency and its leaders play an important role in the U.S. government’s response to China’s unabashed ambition to dominate semiconductor and other critical technology… Read More