House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez expressing his frustration regarding the Bureau of Industry and Security’s (BIS) "overall aversion to enforcing export controls against China’s semiconductor industry, including Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)."
"It is irreconcilable that only SMIC’s most advanced production line (SMIC South) has a presumption of denial licensing policy, whereas the rest of its corporate network faces little to no restrictions."
"If export licenses were being strictly followed, SMIC South would lack access to the U.S. tools, parts, and components needed to fabricate chips. Instead, SMIC South’s 7nm breakthrough suggests their operations continue to improve. It appears that BIS likely approved enough licenses to help SMIC stockpile all the items it needs, and the paper promises of export licenses that underly BIS’s entire PRC licensing policy are being systemically violated," McCall writes.
“Commercial interests must have no influence in law enforcement matters, and the U.S. government must enforce its laws, agnostic to the size, stature, or scale of the foreign entity,” wrote Chairman McCaul. “We call for BIS to immediately initiate end-use checks on all SMIC facilities in the PRC, including SMIC South, to verify that licenses are not being violated.“
The full text of the letter can be found here
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