The issues we are following: Chinese defense and the Taiwan Strait; Chinese economic strategy and trends; China-South-East Asia relations; China and the BRICS…
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- Intensifying tensions between China and the United States over semiconductors:
Since the emergence of ChatGPT, developed by the American company OpenAI, headed by Sam Altman, and made public on 30 November 2022, artificial intelligence – then in its infancy – has generated a wave of interest in the new technology sector. From the American ChatGPT to the French Mistral AI founded in April 2023, the artificial intelligence sector is experiencing an unprecedented boom and has become a geopolitical power issue. One of the manifestations of these geopolitical rivalries is the trade war that the United States and China have been waging since Trump’s first term in office.
As US President Joe Biden prepares to leave the White House, new sanctions targeting Chinese chips were imposed on 2 December 2024. The aim is to deny China access to the technology that is essential for the manufacture of semi-conductors, which are vital for the development of artificial intelligence but can also be used in military applications.
While strengthening its industry, as illustrated by the CHIPS Act in 2022, the US administration is trying to weaken the Chinese industry as much as it can. The fourth offensive since the start of Joseph Biden’s term of office, this latest decree adds 140 Chinese companies to the Commerce Department’s ‘blacklist’, denying them access to the US market.
Furthermore, on 2 December, Donald Trump, the future tenant of the White House from 20 January, reiterated his new threats on tariffs. He warned that 100% tariffs would be imposed on all countries that do not use the dollar for commercial transactions, with China being the first country to be targeted by these warnings.
In response, Beijing has been racing to acquire cutting-edge technology for several years now. In 2023, for example, China imported the equivalent of $9.61 billion worth of American microprocessors, up 42.5% on 2022. Every month since June 2022, Beijing has been importing $1 billion worth of electronic materials such as processors and storage chips.
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