US lawmakers press White House for tougher enforcement of China chip rules

Reuters

Published Oct 06, 2023 05:38PM ET

Updated Oct 06, 2023 09:25PM ET

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Two senior Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday pressed the Biden administration for tougher enforcement of export controls on sending advanced computing chips and the tools to make them to China.

In a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Representatives Michael McCaul and Mike Gallagher, respectively chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a select committee on China, said that new advances by China's top chipmaker show that the a sweeping set of rules rolled out a year ago this month need updating to close what the lawmakers called loopholes.

The letter comes after Huawei Technologies unveiled a new Mate 60 Pro smartphone that contained advanced chips made by China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) despite U.S. sanctions.

"The October 7 rules and SMIC’s growing capabilities reveal a stagnant, obscured bureaucracy that does not understand China’s industrial policy, does not understand China’s military goals, and does not understand technology at all - and does not have the will to act," McCaul and Gallagher said in the letter.