Apple

More Scrutiny of Apple Hugging the Chinese Communist Party

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Apple’s launch of its new iPhone 14 last week served as a moment for elevated scrutiny. As China Tech Threat warned in a blog, the use of chips from the Chinese military chipmaker YMTC in the smartphone “Signals Era Of Dangerous Partnership With Chinese Military Chip Maker.” China Tech Threat wasn’t the only one sounding the alarm. Senator Marco Rubio told the Financial Times Apple is “playing with fire,” adding that “It knows the security risks posed by YMTC. If it moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government.” Sen. Rubio’s “rage,” as it is characterized by the New York Post, follows his April 2022 letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook… Read More

Apple’s iPhone 14 Release Signals Era Of Dangerous Partnership With Chinese Military Chip Maker

Posted on by China Tech Threat
As Apple prepares to unveil its iPhone 14 smartphone at its “Far Out” event today, BusinessKorea add new scrutiny to earlier reports that Apple is compromising American security by shipping devices with chips from the Chinese military chipmaker YMTC. The new reporting suggests that the partnership is laying the foundation for further Apple devices to be outfitted with the suspect circuits. “The move represents a strong win for YMTC and will ensure steady supply of flash memory for Apple’s next-generation products,” reports Tom’s Hardware.  @media all and (min-width: 768px){#kt-layout-id_5a0900-00 .kt-row-column-wrap .inner-column-1{flex:0 1 60%;-webkit-flex:0 1 60%;}#kt-layout-id_5a0900-00 .kt-row-column-wrap .inner-column-2{flex:0 1 40%;-webkit-flex:0 1 40%;}}#kt-layout-id_5a0900-00 .kt-row-column-wrap{padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px;} China Tech Threat raised the concern about Apple’s deal with YMTC in its report “Silicon Sellout: How Apple’s… Read More

Chips Act Is the Carrot, Where’s The Stick?

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Josh Rogin’s recent column on the Chips Act, “Designed to compete with China, the Chips bill falls short,” calls needed attention to multi-front battle the US must be waging to halt China’s quest to dominate global high-tech manufacturing, and help us compete and win against America’s leading adversary. While the long overdue Chips Act will strengthen America’s position in the semiconductor market, create American jobs and bolster our national security, the bill will only be effective over the long-term when complemented with other strategies, like export controls and adding more companies linked to the Chinese government on the Entity List. CTT Co-Founder Dr. Roslyn Layton underscored these concerning omissions from the bill in a recent interview with the UK Telegraph… Read More

Time for a New Export Control Regime

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Emily Weinstein and Kevin Wolf, both fellows at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), held a discussion last month entitled “A New Export Control Regime for the 21st Century.” Multilateral export controls have been around for decades. But according to Weinstein, “the current system no longer meets more complex needs.” The world’s democracies, according to Weinstein, “need to rethink export controls multilaterally.” Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Under Secretary Alan Estevez shares this view, calling the creation of a new multilateral export regime one of his priorities and affirming, “We need to work with our partners on that.” What prompts this assertion? The four multilateral export regimes concentrate on controlling technologies used in conventional weapons and… Read More

8 Solutions for Mitigating the Threat of an Apple-YMTC Deal

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Last week China Tech Threat and the Coalition for a Prosperous America released the report Silicon Sellout: How Apple’s Partnership with Chinese Military Chip Maker YMTC Threatens American National Security. In our first blog post, we detailed Apple’s motivations for doing business with YMTC. Our second post outlined the risks of this partnership. Policymakers inside the U.S. government have multiple options to mitigate the damage from a YMTC-Apple deal. Three of them are most important: 1) Restrict technology exports to and imports from YMTC (Best option) The best, most effective protection of national security restricts U.S. technology exports to and imports from YMTC. This requires three steps: (a) adding YMTC to the Entity List; (b) creating a Foreign Direct Product… Read More

Silicon Sellout Paper: The Five Risks of An Apple-YMTC Deal

Posted on by China Tech Threat
On June 8th China Tech Threat (CTT) and the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) released Silicon Sellout, a report detailing the dangers of Apple’s decision to source memory chips for the iPhone from Chinese state-backed chipmaker YMTC. Our first blog post recounted the reasons Apple is entering into this deal. To recap, the company is likely able to purchase YMTC’s state-subsidized chips more cheaply than it can other chipmakers’ products. It’s also possible that the Chinese government has pressured Apple to choose YMTC chips as a condition of market access – a proposition that Apple would be hard-pressed to be reject given the size of the Chinese market. Apple may reap a short-term financial reward from a deal with… Read More

Silicon Sellout Report: Why Apple is Making a Deal with Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturer YMTC

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Today, the Coalition for a Prosperous America and China Tech Threat have released Silicon Sellout, a new report detailing how Apple’s decision to use chips made by Chinese semiconductor manufacturer YMTC threatens to harm Americans’ security and privacy and reshape the global semiconductor market in China’s favor.  To recap: Right now Apple has entered into an agreement with YMTC to source YMTC chips for the iPhone. This deal will have serious negative consequences for both Americans and the world: It will concentrate more chip production inside China at a time when supply chains are already vulnerable to Chinese lockdowns and government diktats. It will create major security and privacy risks to Apple users all over the world. It will increase… Read More

“Silicon Sellout” Report Set to Highlight Dangers of Apple-YMTC Deal

Posted on by China Tech Threat
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.… Read More

Chinese Government Subsidies in the Semiconductor Industry: Bad for American Companies and Competitiveness

Posted on by China Tech Threat
Last month, Stephen Ezell, Vice President for Global Innovation Policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Much of his testimony addressed how Chinese government subsidies in its homegrown semiconductor industry has damaged American companies and the marketplace in general.  The problem, according to Ezell, is that “Chinese subsidies (and other mercantilist practices) are propping up inferior, less innovative Chinese semiconductor enterprises at the expense of U.S. and other foreign competitors.” He continues: “In the semiconductor sector, perhaps China’s most pernicious mercantilist practice has been aggressively industrial subsidization, largely channeled through the country’s $170 billion National Integrated Circuit (IC) Fund.” Writes Ezell, “Such subsidies are an important part of the explanation… Read More

YMTC Threat Continues to Grow; American Companies May Be Breaking U.S. Law

Posted on by China Tech Threat
The Financial Times reports that the U.S. government is examining whether YMTC, a Chinese state-owned semiconductor manufacturer with deep ties to the Chinese military, is supplying Chinese telecom giant Huawei with chips for its 20e phone. If true, that relationship poses enormous legal risk for American companies currently doing or hoping to do business with YMTC, including Apple. For more, visit China’s Army to infiltrate iPhones with YMTC Chips. To recap: Huawei is currently subject to U.S. export controls over concerns its technologies will be used to surreptitiously collect user data and feed it back to the Chinese government. If YMTC is in fact found to be supplying Huawei with chips made with help from American tech firms like Lam… Read More