By Joyce Nzomo
The United States has added two Chinese semiconductor firms to its trade blacklist, accusing them of acquiring American chipmaking tools for China’s largest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).
The Commerce Department announced that GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co. and Jicun Semiconductor Technology were placed on the Entity List for supplying equipment to SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp. Both SMIC entities were already subject to U.S. restrictions, meaning shipments of U.S. equipment to them
require licenses that are generally denied.
In total, 32 companies were added to the restricted trade list, 23 of them based in China. Others came from Singapore, Taiwan, India, Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.
Among them was Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Technology Co., a producer of high- performance computing chips. The U.S. accused the company and its affiliates of supporting China’s military modernization, participating in advanced computing and chip distribution, and directly supplying China’s security apparatus.
The Commerce Department also said the firm provided technology to Russian military end users, leading to additional restrictions. The newly listed companies could not be reached for comment.
Courtesy of Reuters
