back to article US chip war could hurt the West as Beijing moves to ramp up its own industry

The US battle to halt China's growing semiconductor industry is having an effect, but risks hurting Western industries as well. Meanwhile, China is fighting back with new investments aimed at making its own industries more self-sufficient. Washington's sweeping export restrictions on semiconductor technologies, announced in …

  1. Kev18999

    US bans China from participating in the International space station and now China is building their own and soon it will build a better space station because the US and it's allies have mismanaged and lagged behind in tech. Everything the US does to slow China does will lead to China building their own and surpassing the US.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The USA banned Japan from importing LCD screens so they made their own laptops. But who would ever dream of buying a Japanese laptop ?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Double Decker Bus

      I was horrified when I recently watched a TV program about how an electric double decker bus was made. All the UK factory did was the "coachbuilding" work, based on a complete chassis, built in china, which was driven in to the factory under it's own power.

      I'm certainly not saying that the coachbuilding work isn't worthwhile, but was deeply saddened that this is the way a bus is manufactured in the UK now.

      1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Re: Double Decker Bus

        It is often not possible to build e.g. chassis in the UK - we no longer have the expertise and manufacturing capacity or it will be too expensive.

      2. Tom 38

        Re: Double Decker Bus

        I'm certainly not saying that the coachbuilding work isn't worthwhile, but was deeply saddened that this is the way a bus is manufactured in the UK now.

        So, either you have never heard of "British Leyland", or you've forgotten too much.

  2. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Surprised?

    Pretty much what some of us have been saying for some considerable time.

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: Surprised?

      Nobody is "surprised". This is what export restrictions always do, and everyone knows it.

      Sometimes they think it's worth doing anyway. For instance, it may be undesirable to have your own industry strongly coupled to/dependent on a foreign partner who may become hostile. See "European dependence on Russian gas" for an example of how this works.

  3. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Blame the victim

    If China wasn't embarking on increasingly more authoritarian path and imperialistic rhetoric threatening their neighbours with war, then maybe the West didn't have to move away from China.

    Lessons have been (hopefully) learned that peace through trade is a pipe dream when you look at Russia. Bloodthirsty dictators will only use trade to build their war chest rather than make their subjects prosper.

    It's also time that we brought these high tech jobs home. There many young folks who would love to work in the chip industry, but we don't have any and moving to China is not an option.

    1. WhoDecidedThat

      Re: Blame the victim

      Possibly. But any time a non-western country advances in a strategic technology either way the U.S. will find a way to stamp them out.

      1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Re: Blame the victim

        Like China, Taiwan?

        Things don't happen in non-western countries, because they don't want anything to happen.

    2. HereIAmJH

      Re: Blame the victim

      There is also the painful lesson of COVID that supply chains need to be more distributed, if not local. For the US, you aren't going to encourage chip manufacturing without tariffs, bans, or subsidies. Corporations have decided that China has the cheapest manufacturing and cheap is the most important thing.

    3. Kev18999

      Re: Blame the victim

      Ok, as an American. Who is more Imperialistic? China? Who has invaded more countries the last 100,50,20,even 5 years? The problem is whoever controls the media and the dominant superpower gets to write the narrative regardless what is fact.

  4. StrangerHereMyself Silver badge

    Don't buy it

    I don't believe this will hurt the West in the long run. For us it's much more pressing to blunt China's progress both economically, politically and militarily. Yes, this could lead to higher prices, but that's more than worth it to keep us safe and relevant in the future.

    1. that one in the corner Silver badge

      Re: Don't buy it

      relevant?

      1. StrangerHereMyself Silver badge

        Re: Don't buy it

        China is already starting to become an alternative to the West's hegemony. This must be checked before it encroaches any further.

        1. that one in the corner Silver badge

          Re: Don't buy it

          You recognise the existence of a Western (let's be honest, just Yank) hegemony - and you then want us to applaud the idea of *protecting* said hegemony?

          Bog off.

  5. Snowy Silver badge
    Facepalm

    May or may not hurt the west

    The banks will be queuing up to invest anyway.

  6. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

    Thank you for the correct report

    -> the UK have stopped using equipment supplied by China-based Huawei in the face of pressure from the US

    I still keep seeing this reported as security concerns. It is nothing more than US hegemony.

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Thank you for the correct report

      It's not an excuse to support a communist country that commits genocide and aids Russia.

      The only answer is to create economy where we can manufacture high tech stuff ourselves.

      1. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

        Re: Thank you for the correct report

        If you are going to bring morality into it, we should have nothing to do with the USA. Deliberate and racist voter disenfranchisement, bombing countries to steal their oil, interfering wherever it likes.

        1. Snowy Silver badge
          Coat

          Re: Thank you for the correct report

          You could add broken up empires only to bring their own in.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Other suppliers, such as Netherlands-based ASML, are not currently affected by the US export controls, but Washington is already applying pressure to change this."

    Eventually someone is going to have to wake the Americans up to the fact that they do not rule the planet!

    1. seldom

      Ha ha

      If your company has even seen a dollar from a distance or one of your shareholders is an american citizen then you are subject to american law. Not to mention third party sanctions.

    2. that one in the corner Silver badge

      As the US is clearly intent on encouraging China to improve their fabs, we can assume that the US is going weary of their burden as planetary rulers and are working towards handing that role over sooner rather than later.

  8. martinusher Silver badge

    Disrupting the Buld/Buy tradeoff

    These shortsighted policies might appear to slow down China in the short term but what they're really doing is altering the build/buy tradeoff. Forcing the Chinese to do work that was not cost effective for them might slow them down in the near term but it won't stop them, we'll just end up with even more formidable competition as their versions of technology, unencumbered by years of development compromises, becomes the better mousetrap.

    Obviously we can continue telling ourselves that they just can't do what we can do. All the time buying products from Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

    We're also causing our 'allies' significant economic hardship by insisting on them enforcing our sanctions policies even if it hurts them. (Put simply, we make hay while you freeze. Thanks!)

    1. Snowy Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Disrupting the Buld/Buy tradeoff

      China's economy is not doing so great.

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