Chinese President Xi Jinping said his nation will prevail in its fight to develop strategically important technology, underscoring Beijing’s concern over US moves to cut it off from cutting-edge chip capabilities.
“We will focus on national strategic needs, gather strength to carry out indigenous and leading scientific and technological research, and resolutely win the battle in key core technologies,” Xi said in a speech on Sunday in Beijing at the opening of the ruling Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress.
Xi said the world’s second largest economy will speed up innovation in areas that are vital to competitiveness. “China will move faster to launch a number of major national projects that are of strategic, big-picture and long-term importance,” he said.
The comments illustrate how China plans to deal with US placing new restrictions on tech exports that could undercut its ability to develop broad sections of its economy, from semiconductors and supercomputers to surveillance systems and advanced weapons. Earlier this month, the US commerce department unveiled sweeping regulations that limit the sale of semiconductors and chip-making equipment to Chinese customers, striking at the foundation of the country’s efforts to build its own chip industry.
The US also added 31 organisations to its unverified list, including Yangtze Memory Technologies and a subsidiary of leading chip equipment maker Naura Technology Group, severely limiting their ability to buy hardware from abroad. The moves were the Joe Biden administration’s most aggressive yet as it tries to stop China from developing capabilities it sees as a threat.
Beijing criticised the expanded US curbs on its access to semiconductor technology, saying they will harm supply chains and the global economy. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the measures — which start to go into force this month — are unfair and will “also hurt the interests of US companies”.
Read: US knee-caps China’s chip sector, sending tech investors scrambling
In his speech to the party congress, Xi said China was now one of the world’s great innovating nations, lauding its capabilities in areas such as space exploration and biomedicine. — (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP