IBM partners with Japan to develop advanced chips, counter China; 14 countries probe China’s overseas police stations & Biden and Xi meet at G20 Summit in Bali today -- China Boss News 11.14.22
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IBM partners with Japan to develop advanced chips, counter China
Corporations backed by the Japanese government are partnering with U.S. tech firm IBM “to develop advanced chips as the tech war between the US and China intensifies and Tokyo seeks to deepen its ties with allies,” Financial Times reported. Toyota, Sony, chipmaker Kioxia, telecoms provider NTT and SoftBank, together with Tokyo, plan to invest ¥70bn ($493mn) in a recently launched company named Rapidus which is “work[ing]to get a license from IBM to manufacture sub 2-nanometre chip technology in Japan,” news staff said.
The Japanese government has tasked Rapidus with developing and mass-producing “the next generation of logic semiconductors by 2027,” according to TechCrunch.
TechCrunch:
“Semiconductors are going to be a critical component for developing new leading-edge technologies such as AI, digital industries and health-tech,” Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura said at a news conference today. “Semiconductors are becoming even more important from an economic security perspective” due to the rising geopolitical risks.
But that may not be fast enough to secure semiconductor supply chains if China were to attack or blockade Taiwan before then. Taiwan’s semiconductor champ TSMC headquartered just an hour’s drive south of the capital Taipei, is responsible for 55% of global production, according to UK government research, which released a paper last summer discussing the national security implications of microchip supplies.
Last month, China Boss noted that, both, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Navy Chief Mike Gildan think Beijing is “speeding up plans to seize Taiwan.”
China Boss:
Blinken’s ominous assessment came two days before Admiral Mike Gilday, chief of U.S. naval operations, “warned that the American military must be prepared for the possibility of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan before 2024,” according to the Financial Times. In a discussion at the Atlantic Council, Gilday said that “the US had to consider that China could take action against Taiwan much sooner than even the more pessimistic warnings.”
For now, the Chinese chip industry is reeling from “the severity of the US regulations [banning exports to China],” Bloomberg says.
Bloomberg:
The Chinese government has made it a national priority to build a domestic semiconductor industry, pouring tens of billions of dollars into the effort. This year, President Xi Jinping renewed calls for the country to develop the technologies critical for national security, invoking the so-called “whole nation system” that propelled China’s space and nuclear weapons programs
The Biden rules dealt a serious setback to that effort. Chip stocks and related companies tumbled across the country. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. fell 9.3% over three days, as as Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Charles Shum slashed his estimate on 2023 growth by 50%. Naura Technology Group Co., a leading chip equipment maker, fell by its daily limit for two days in a row.
In response to American export controls, Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to hasten steps towards cutting reliance on Western technology during last month’s 20th Party Congress, Bloomberg reported in an earlier update.
Bloomberg:
Xi said the world’s No. 2 economy will speed up innovation in areas that are vital to “technology self-reliance,” adding that “China will move faster to launch a number of major national projects that are of strategic, big-picture and long-term importance.” He didn’t give details on those efforts.
The comments illustrate how China plans to deal with the US placing new restrictions on tech exports that could undercut its ability to develop broad sections of its economy such as semiconductors, supercomputers, surveillance systems and advanced weapons.
For the rest of FT’s story, IBM ties up with new Japanese chip company to counter China, click here. For the UK Parliament’s article, Is microchip supply a national security issue?, click here. For Bloomberg’s update, US Chip Suppliers Pull Back From China’s Yangtze Memory After Biden Ban, click here and for Bloomberg’s report on Xi’s speech at the 20th Party Congress, China’s Xi Vows Victory in Tech Battle After US Chip Curbs, click here.
Law and International Xi
Safeguard Defenders: 14 countries investigate China’s overseas police stations
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