China warns MATCH Act will break supply chains
- China’s Commerce Ministry said on April 25 it will “closely follow” the U.S. MATCH Act after the House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced the bill on April 22 with a broader export-control package. - The bill, H.R. 8170, would tighten controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, including servicing rules, and targets gaps involving facilities linked to SMIC, YMTC and CXMT, according to the bill text and Reuters. - The fight has shifted from chips to the machines that make them, extending a U.S.-China tech standoff into allied toolmakers and factory service contracts. (congress.gov)
China warned on April 25 that the U.S. MATCH Act could disrupt the global semiconductor supply chain if it becomes law. (globaltimes.cn) (congress.gov) The trigger was a House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on April 22 advancing H.R. 8170, the Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act, in a larger markup of export-control bills. (foreignaffairs.house.gov) (docs.house.gov) China’s Ministry of Commerce said the bill “seriously undermine[s] the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain” and said Beijing would take measures to protect Chinese companies’ lawful rights. (globaltimes.cn) The MATCH Act is not about finished chips first. It is about semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the specialized lithography, etching, deposition and servicing tools needed to build advanced chips in the first place. (congress.gov) (foreign.senate.gov) U.S. backers say current controls are too patchy. The Senate sponsors said on April 8 that China and other adversaries can still buy “chokepoint” chipmaking equipment from U.S. partners even when U.S. firms face tighter limits. (foreign.senate.gov) The House bill was introduced on April 2 by Representative Michael Baumgartner, a Washington Republican, with bipartisan cosponsors including Representatives John Mannion, Jared Golden, Maggie Goodlander and Suhas Subramanyam. (congress.gov) (baumgartner.house.gov) The bill text names Chinese companies including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., Yangtze Memory Technologies, ChangXin Memory Technologies, Huawei, Naura, Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment. (congress.gov) Reuters reported that the current draft would restrict more equipment sales to China, including deep ultraviolet immersion machines, and would require licenses for foreign companies such as ASML to service equipment at covered Chinese facilities. (usnews.com) That service provision is a big part of the fight. A chip fab can own a machine, but it still depends on software updates, spare parts and engineers to keep production running. (usnews.com) (foreign.senate.gov) Reuters also reported that Micron Technology has been pushing Congress to tighten the rules, arguing that Chinese memory makers are expanding despite earlier U.S. curbs. Reuters said Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra held closed-door roundtables with House and Senate lawmakers. (usnews.com) The politics here have widened beyond one company or one shipment. The April 22 committee markup included bills on Entity List changes, whistleblower protections, overseas export-control officers and faster license processing. (docs.house.gov) (foreignaffairs.house.gov) The next step is not immediate law. Congress.gov still lists H.R. 8170 as introduced and referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, so the bill would still need to move through the House, the Senate and the president. (congress.gov) For now, the dispute has moved from who can buy the fastest chips to who can buy, repair and align the machines that make them. Beijing is warning about supply-chain damage while Washington is trying to close the remaining tool-and-service loopholes. (globaltimes.cn) (foreignaffairs.house.gov)
