China sharpens criticism of US chip-equipment bill as Trump arrives in Beijing

"Beijing has sharpened its criticism of US legislation that would tighten controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, on the morning Donald Trump arrived in the Chinese capital for a state visit and summit with Xi Jinping. The Chinese foreign ministry said the bill, the MATCH Act now moving through Congress , was further evidence of what spokesperson Lin Jian has repeatedly called Washington's "overstretching of the concept of national security" and "malicious blocking and suppression" of Chinese industry."

"The Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act , introduced by Representative Michael Baumgartner on 2 April and given a Senate companion six days later by Pete Ricketts, Andy Kim, Jim Risch, and Chuck Schumer, cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 22 April. China's Ministry of Commerce warned at the time that the bill would "severely disrupt the international economic and trade order.""

"The bill names SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong, CXMT, and YMTC as "covered facilities" and would prohibit the export to any of them of the deep-ultraviolet immersion lithography equipment that ASML still legally sells into China. It would also ban allied firms from servicing machines already installed, a provision that would degrade existing Chinese fab capacity over time, since DUV systems require regular maintenance to sustain yield."

"Most consequentially for diplomacy, it would give the Netherlands and Japan a 150-day window to align their own export rules with Washington's or face unilater"

China criticized the MATCH Act as an example of Washington overstretching national security and maliciously blocking Chinese industry. The criticism came as Donald Trump arrived in Beijing for a summit with Xi Jinping, with trade, AI, export controls, Taiwan, and Iran on the agenda. The bill, moving through Congress, would prohibit exporting deep-ultraviolet immersion lithography equipment to covered Chinese firms including SMIC, Huawei, Hua Hong, CXMT, and YMTC. It would also restrict allied servicing of installed machines, potentially degrading Chinese fabrication capacity over time. It would require Japan and the Netherlands to align export rules with US standards within 150 days or face consequences.

Read at TNW | China