It has evolved from US complaints about Chinese intellectual property and technology transfer practices into a broad-spectrum effort to paralyse the further technological and commercial development of Chinese technology firms, and decouple the US and Chinese IT sectors. Its focus has expanded to include the semiconductor chip industry.
Businesses throughout the semiconductor industry worldwide are becoming caught up in a geopolitical clash.
The semiconductor trade shows how a once apolitical sector can quickly become politicised, much as medical equipment has been amid COVID-19.
China will seek continued access to non-US foreign technologies through regulation of foreign firms within China.
To succeed, China’s semiconductor development projects will need to reduce waste and coordinate their efforts better.
