White House reacts to Huawei’s plan to build semiconductors

Huawei’s efforts to make self-developed semiconductors are continuously bugging the US administration, on the other hand, the media is also asking the White House to react to Huawei’s new supply chain partnerships.

On October 3rd, during the White House Press Briefing, a reporter asked Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about a recent report on Taiwanese firms’ support of Huawei to build semiconductors. Check the Q&A below.

Reporter “And off that topic just a little bit, we reported that there were Taiwanese firms that are helping China develop chip factories in China. Is the U.S. investigating export — possible export control violations there? And more broadly, if you can’t answer that, can you gauge concern that — that our domestic chips program is potentially pushing our partner Taiwan towards Beijing?”

Kirby replied “So, while I’ve seen the press reports, I can’t confirm the accuracy of those reports one way or another. Obviously, no surprise to us that Huawei will be looking to find ways to continue the illicit production of semiconductors, and particularly working throughout the PRC to do that. I can’t confirm the specific reports about Taiwan.”

Kirby predicted that there could be a new challenge for Huawei coming later on. Yet, the US officials refrain from making any specific comments on this matter.

“And then, on export controls. Again, no announcements or anything to make today. But we’re confident in the export controls that we have in place that — that they will be helpful in terms of protecting the supply chain for semiconductors here in the United States and that — look, we’re not — it’s not static. We’re going to constantly look at the regime. And if it needs to be changed or adjusted, we’ll absolutely do that in the future.”

Earlier today, US Commerce Department Secretary, Gina Raimondo said the news of the Huawei chip breakthrough is really disturbing. She also promised to tighten US export laws but remained mum for the moment.

(source)