U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo doubled down on the Biden administration’s controversial plan to ban U.S. corporations, and residents, from helping China manufacture advanced semiconductor chips, saying: “We’ve got to guard the American people against China. Period. Full stop.”
“China has change into more aggressive in what they call their military-civil fusion strategy, which is actually fancy talk for getting our sophisticated chips, that are supposedly for business purposes,” Raimondo said in an interview Thursday with CNBC’s Jim Cramer. China, nonetheless, is using those chips in military equipment that U.S. officials worry may very well be used against America, she said. “That is essentially the most strategic, most daring move we have ever made to say no, we’re not going to face for that.”
In October, the Biden administration imposed export restrictions on semiconductors manufactured in China by U.S. corporations. The administration has also called on U.S. allies to issue similar restrictions. “I feel you will see other countries follow us,” she said.
U.S. chip makers can have to acquire a license from the Commerce Department to export certain chips that could be utilized in modern weapons systems. Commerce also issued license restrictions barring U.S. residents from working for China’s chip manufacturing industry, putting their U.S. citizenship in danger.
Raimondo says the brand new rule is “crucial” despite denying some revenue to some U.S. corporations.”
The Commerce Secretary added that the regulations are usually not designed to punish U.S. businesses.
“That is targeted. We didn’t do that on day one. We have been working on this for a yr. It’s powerful, however it’s also targeted to get the national security job done and never punish U.S. corporations,” Raimondo said.
