US Demanding Allies Strengthen Maintenance Restrictions on Chip Equipment Exported to China

As the Biden administration seeks to further limit China’s ambition to manufacture cutting-edge semiconductors, the United States is demanding that allies prevent domestic companies from providing certain chip manufacturing equipment to Chinese customers, while also demanding that allies impose more restrictions on the maintenance of chip manufacturing equipment in China.
Alan Estevez, Deputy Secretary for Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce, said, “We are working with our allies to determine what is important for services and what is not. We are pushing not to provide services to these critical components, so we are in discussions with our allies.” He added that the US does not intend to restrict equipment suppliers from maintaining more peripheral components that Chinese companies can self repair.
China and the United States have been embroiled in a technology war that has lasted for several years, with the United States attempting to prevent China from manufacturing more advanced chips to enhance its capabilities.

In 2023, Huawei launched a Mate 60 Pro phone equipped with advanced chips, which surprised US officials. Chinese wafer foundries still rely on American suppliers, including Applied Materials, and Dutch ASML to jointly produce chips. After Huawei made a breakthrough, the United States has been pressuring its allies to tighten channels for China to acquire cutting-edge technology.
The Biden administration announced new restrictions on the export of US made chip equipment to advanced chip factories in China in 2022, and convinced major chip manufacturing equipment manufacturers Japan and the Netherlands to adopt similar control measures.
The regulations in the United States make it difficult for American companies to continue providing services for devices purchased by Chinese companies before the new regulations are introduced, including restricted application materials and devices deployed by Chinese entities on the entity list, but the Netherlands and Japan do not have similar bans against domestic companies. This prompted US officials to persuade allies to follow the US restrictions.