China readies chip subsidies as US row rumbles on
China reportedly prepared a CNY1 trillion ($143.3 billion) package to support its semiconductor industry, a day after filing a case against US chip sanctions with the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Reuters claimed the funding would take the form of subsidies and tax credits over five years and is an attempt by China to boost its domestic industry in the face of US export sanctions, which the country is also seeking to have quashed.
Reports of the support package come hours after China’s Ministry of Commerce announced it had lodged a grievance against US export restrictions of chips and other products with the WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism.
“We hope that the US will give up its zero-sum game thinking, correct its mistakes in a timely manner, stop disrupting the trade of high-tech products such as chips, maintain normal economic and trade exchanges between China and the United States, and maintain the stability of the global supply chain of important industrial chains such as chips”, the government department noted in a statement on its complaint.
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The ministry argued the US had been “generalising the concept of national security”, abusing export control measures and “harming global peace”, among other trade-related grievances. Its complaint covers chips and related products subject to restrictions.
Its complaint is the latest escalation of trade tensions between the nations related to the export of technology to vendors in China, with the US claiming national security issues.
Companies subject to restrictions include Huawei, with US businesses requiring a licence to supply advanced components to the vendor.
