New Chip Ban Accelerates U.S. Decoupling From China: Experts

The United States expanded its semiconductor ban on China and issued a China-focused “National Security Strategy” five days before the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) party congress on Oct. 12

Experts believe these unprecedented moves will accelerate the United States’ decoupling from China and that the “new Iron Curtain” may have fallen.

Experts believe that the Biden administration has made an all-around containment of the CCP. Moreover, the sanctions in the semiconductor field are likely to be the beginning. If it expands to other fields such as finance and biotechnology, the decoupling of the United States and China will really take effect.

Chip Ban Extended to ‘Talents’

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced (pdf) on Oct. 7 that it imposed new export restrictions on advanced semiconductors and chip-manufacturing equipment to prevent American technology from being used for China’s military development.

The swiping ban also effectively prohibits U.S. persons from supporting the development or production of chips covered by the restrictions. Under this rule, U.S. nationals in Chinese chip-related companies will face a choice between losing U.S. citizenship or quitting jobs in China.

U.S. export controls to China for years have only been on technologies, products, companies, or organizations, and the new ban extends export controls to individual U.S. citizens and green card holders for the first time. It is considered to be the most restrictive ban on China’s semiconductor industry.

According to Radio Free Asia, on the day the ban took effect, hundreds of Chinese-Americans working in semiconductor companies resigned from Yangtze Memory Technologies, Changxin Memory Technologies, Shanghai IC R&D Center Jiading Factory, Hefei Changxin Memory Technologies, and others.

A visitor looks at a 300mm wafer at the booth of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) during 2021 World Semiconductor Conference in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, on June 9, 2021. (Long Wei/VCG via Getty Images)

Chiou Jiunn-Rong, an Economics professor at National Central University in Taiwan, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 14: “It’s very likely to form a trend. Previously, capital was leaving China, and the next trend is technology professionals leaving China.”

Chiou said that the indirect effect is that after the chip industry is hobbled, China’s overall economy will be impacted, which will affect other fields, and even people in the field of business and business management will probably also leave China.

The United States also announced the National Security Strategy on Oct. 12, which focuses on the CCP and Russia, calling the latter an “immediate threat” and that the CCP was the only competitor with the intention and ability to reshape the national order.

Doong Sy-Chi, deputy chief executive of a Taiwanese think tank, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 14 that the United States has determined to set the CCP as a strategic competitor in all aspects. The trade competition that used to be focused on enterprises has now become on individuals. The Biden administration has made a larger strategic setting.

Decoupling Accelerated

Tsai Ming-fang, an Economics professor at Tamkang University, told The

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