Two senators from the US Republican Party are seeking a public analysis and review of the Chinese firm Yangtze Memory Technologies Company after Apple said it was thinking of buying NAND memory chips from the firm for use in future iPhones.
In a statement, Mark Warner (Virginia) and Marco Rubio (Florida) wrote to the director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, seeking a review of alleged risks that YMTC poses to US national security.
Over the last few years, the US has sought to cut off Chinese companies’ access to advanced semiconductors. One of the firms affected has been Huawei Technologies, once a leader in the smartphone industry in China, but now reduced to a bit player.
The letter was also signed by Democrat majority leader in the House, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Senator John Cormyn, a Republican from Texas.
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“[W]e write to convey that any decision to partner with YMTC, no matter the intended market of the product offerings developed by such a partnership, would affirm and reward the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] distortive and unfair trade practices, which undermine US. companies globally by creating significant advantages to Chinese firms at the expense of foreign competitors,” the letter said.
“Last year, the Biden Administration described YMTC as China’s ‘national champion memory chip producer’, which supports the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party’s] efforts to counter US innovation and leadership in this space.
“Policymakers have for several years now conveyed to the American public the importance of a competitive semiconductor industry to US national and economic security.
“A partnership between Apple and YMTC would endanger this critical sector and risk nullifying efforts to support it, jeopardising the health of chipmakers in the US and allied countries and advancing Beijing’s goal of controlling the global semiconductor market.
“Buoyed by a major contract with a leading global equipment vendor such as Apple, YMTC’s success would threaten the 24,000 American jobs that support memory chip production.
“More broadly, such a partnership would also threaten the opportunities this market provides for research at US universities and further development of memory chips for civilian and military uses.”
Warner and Rubio also said that reports had alleged that YMTC may have breached the US’ foreign direct product rule in supplying smartphone and electronics components to Huawei. The rule prohibits companies on an Entity List from obtaining products made using American technology, unless they have an exemption from the US Department of Commerce.
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