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☆ Exclusive: China plans $500 million subsea internet cable to rival US-backed project
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Joe Brock | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

China's three main carriers – China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd(China Unicom) – are mapping out one of the world’s most advanced and far-reaching subsea cable networks, according to the four people, who have direct knowledge of the plan. They said HMN Tech, which is majority-owned by Shanghai-listed Hengtong Optic-Electric Co Ltd, would receive subsidies from the Chinese state to build the cable. China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, HMN Tech, and Hengtong did not respond to requests for comment. The consortium on the SeaMeWe-6 cable – which originally had included China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and telecom carriers from several other nations – initially picked HMN Tech to build that cable. China Telecom and China Mobile pulled out of the project after SubCom won the contract last year and, along with China Unicom, began planning the EMA cable, the four people involved said.

☆ Exclusive: China plans $500 mln subsea internet cable to rival U.S.-backed project
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Joe Brock | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

China's three main carriers – China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd(China Unicom) – are mapping out one of the world’s most advanced and far-reaching subsea cable networks, according to the four people, who have direct knowledge of the plan. They said HMN Tech, which is majority-owned by Shanghai-listed Hengtong Optic-Electric Co Ltd, would receive subsidies from the Chinese state to build the cable. China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, HMN Tech, Hengtong and China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The consortium on the SeaMeWe-6 cable – which originally had included China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and telecom carriers from several other nations – initially picked HMN Tech to build that cable. China Telecom and China Mobile pulled out of the project after SubCom won the contract last year and, along with China Unicom, began planning the EMA cable, the four people involved said.

☆ Huawei reports biggest profit decline ever as U.S. sanctions, pandemic controls hit Chinese giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

But its profit plunged as pressure from U.S. sanctions and China's pandemic controls weighed on the Chinese technology giant. The Chinese telecommunications giant said net profit for 2022 totaled 35.6 billion yuan ($5.18 billion), a 69% year-on-year decline. Huawei reported on Friday its biggest annual decline in profit on record as U.S. sanctions continue to hit its business and strict pandemic controls in China weighed on the company. With challenges in both the carrier and consumer business, Huawei has sought to diversify the company into new areas. Huawei said its nascent "Intelligent Automotive Solutions" unit brought in 2.1 billion yuan in 2022.

☆ China's chip industry will be 'reborn' under U.S. sanctions, Huawei says, confirming breakthrough
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The U.S. has placed major chip export restrictions on Huawei and Chinese firms over the past few years. China's chip industry will be "reborn" as a result of U.S. sanctions, a top boss at Huawei said Friday, as the Chinese telecommunications giant confirmed a breakthrough in semiconductor design technology. "For Huawei, we will render our support to all such self-saving, self-strengthening and self reliance efforts of the Chinese semiconductor industry." "I believe China's semiconductor industry will get reborn under such sanctions and realize a very strong and self-reliant industry," Xu said. Experts previously told CNBC that the latest round of U.S. restrictions are likely to hurt China's semiconductor industry.

☆ U.S. and China wage war beneath the waves – over internet cables
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +28 min

Three of China’s state-owned carriers – China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd (China Unicom) – had committed funding as members of the consortium, which also included U.S.-based Microsoft Corp and French telecom firm Orange SA, according to six people involved in the deal. China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and Orange did not respond to requests for comment. China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom were resolutely behind HMN Tech, which had come in with a bid of around $500 million. China Telecom and China Mobile threatened to walk off the project, taking tens of millions of dollars of investment with them. Among them is China Telecom, which had previously won authorization to provide services in the United States.

☆ Biden to host Australia and Britain to reveal details of submarine pact to counter China
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( David Brunnstrom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

In the early 2030s, Australia would buy three Virginia class submarines and have the option to buy two more. Under the initial AUKUS deal announced in 2021, the United States and Britain agreed to provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines. It will be the first time the United States has shared nuclear-propulsion technology since it did so with Britain in the 1950s. Currently no party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty other than the five countries the NPT recognizes as weapons states - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - has nuclear submarines. General Dynamics Corp (GD.N), which makes Virginia class submarines, has 17 of them in its current backlog delivering through 2032.

☆ PREVIEW Biden to host Australia and Britain to reveal details of submarine pact to counter China
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( David Brunnstrom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Two of the officials said that after the annual port visits, the United States would forward deploy some submarines in Western Australia by around 2027. In the early 2030s, Australia would buy three Virginia class submarines and have the option to buy two more. It will be the first time the United States has shared nuclear-propulsion technology since it did so with Britain in the 1950s. Currently no party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty other than the five countries the NPT recognizes as weapons states - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - has nuclear submarines. General Dynamics Corp (GD.N), which makes Virginia class submarines, has 17 of them in its current backlog delivering through 2032.

☆ U.S. seeks closer India tech ties; no China "decoupling"- U.S. commerce secretary
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Shivangi Acharya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, March 10 (Reuters) - India could become a key supplier of electronic parts and hardware for the United States, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Friday, adding that Washington was not seeking a "technological decoupling" from China. "We want to deepen our technology relationship with India," she said after both countries signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the semiconductor sector. India has been seeking to attract more investment in the chipmaking and display sector under a $10 billion incentive plan. She also said she would announce a number of "substantial investments" by U.S. firms in India, without giving any details. Reporting by Shivangi Achary; writing by Miral Fahmy; editing by Christina FincherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - Australia is expected to buy up to five U.S. Virginia class nuclear powered submarines in the 2030's as part of a landmark defense agreement between Washington, Canberra and London, four U.S. officials said on Wednesday. U.S. President Joe Biden will host leaders of Australia and Britain in San Diego next week to chart a way forward for provision of the nuclear-powered submarines and other high-tech weaponry to Australia. In the early 2030's, Australia would buy 3 Virginia class submarines and have the option to buy two more. AUKUS will be Australia's biggest-ever defense project and offers the prospect of jobs in all three countries. Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Steve Holland; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Atlanta/Hong Kong CNN —The United States on Thursday added two subsidiaries of Chinese genetics company BGI to a trade blacklist over allegations it conducted genetic analysis and surveillance activities for Beijing, which Washington says was used to repress ethnic minorities in China. CNN has reached out to BGI Group, which is one of the world’s largest genomics companies and a listed firm based in Shenzhen, for comment on its subsidiaries. China has regularly pushed back against these reports with firm denials. The latest list compiled by the US Department of Commerce includes a total of 28 Chinese entities, four from Pakistan, three from Myanmar and one each from Belarus, Russia and Taiwan. Being placed on the list means the entities are restricted from buying American technology and other goods.

☆ US is reviewing Huawei export license policy amid rising congressional scrutiny of China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

US officials have expressed concerns that Huawei’s 5G wireless networking gear could allow the Chinese government to spy on American communications. Huawei has denied that it poses a security risk, and its founder has said the company would resist any Chinese government effort to obtain its data. Confronting Estevez at Tuesday’s hearing, McCaul asked the Commerce Department to square the license approvals with the US government’s wider effort to sideline Huawei and similar companies. Separately, in 2020 the Commerce Department moved to prevent Huawei’s suppliers from selling the company semiconductor chips made by US-built software and equipment, unless those suppliers also obtained a license. Other parts of the US government have also moved against Huawei.

Instead the opposite happened," said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the select committee, in his opening remarks. McMaster said the United States must put a priority on expediting delivery of billions of dollars of weapons and munitions that Taiwan has already purchased. Although the committee is bipartisan, some Democratic lawmakers have voiced concerns that it could fuel anti-Asian sentiment within the United States. The select committee has 13 Republican and 11 Democratic members. It will not write legislation, but will draw attention to competition between the United States and China on a range of fronts and make policy recommendations.

☆ Leaking Chip Secrets to China Results in Jail Terms for Ex-Samsung Employees
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Jiyoung Sohn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SEOUL—A court in South Korea found seven ex-employees of a Samsung Electronics Co. subsidiary guilty of illegally obtaining and transferring semiconductor-related technology to Chinese companies, a case that underscores the intensifying efforts countries are making to protect their chip technologies. Details of the accusations, which were released on Monday, emerged as the U.S. has pushed sweeping restrictions on exports of advanced chips and chip-making equipment to China to prevent American technology from advancing Beijing’s military power.

Taipei/Hong Kong CNN —Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell as much as 4% on Wednesday, after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had sold most of its holdings in the chip giant. Just months before, in November, the company held about 60 million American depository shares of TSMC worth $4.1 billion, according to an SEC filing. Berkshire Hathaway did not provide a reason for the sale and did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment. Shares in TSMC, which accounts for an estimated 90% of the world’s super-advanced computer chips, ended Wednesday more than 3% lower. TSMC announced last year that it’s building a second semiconductor factory in Phoenix and increasing its investment there.

☆ US-China trade defies talk of decoupling to hit record high in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Juliana Liu | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —Trade between the United States and China hit a record high in 2022, even as political tension heightened between the world’s top two economies. The bilateral goods trade between the countries rose to $690.6 billion last year, according to official US data, which was released Tuesday. Exports to China increased by $2.4 billion to $153.8 billion, while imports of Chinese products rose by $31.8 billion to $536.8 billion according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. “Supply chains are sticky, particularly those linked to China,” Nick Marro, lead analyst for global trade at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNN. In October 2022, his administration imposed sweeping new curbs designed to curtail China’s access to technology critical to its growing military power.

☆ Dutch, Japanese curbs on chip equipment to China may not be tough enough -industry group
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Karen Freifeld | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Feb 1 (Reuters) - A chip industry group is warning that if U.S. allies do not adopt curbs on semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China that are comparable to U.S. controls, they will not be effective. However, in a lengthy comment dated Jan. 31 on the October regulations, the group expressed concern that the allies' curbs would not be nearly as restrictive as the U.S. controls. It noted that U.S. equipment companies' share of the Chinese market has eroded for the past two years, as Chinese companies anticipated the new curbs. The U.S. Department of Commerce, which issued the October rules and has been working with allies, had no immediate comment. SEMI has over 2,500 members worldwide, including leading U.S. equipment makers Lam Research and Applied Materials.

☆ China says it is ‘deeply concerned’ about reports of the latest US clampdown on Huawei
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hong Kong CNN —China has hit back after reports that Washington is moving to further restrict sales of American technology to Huawei. “China is deeply concerned,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry, said at a press conference Tuesday. The following year, the US government expanded on those curbs by seeking to cut Huawei off from chip suppliers using US-made technology. US officials have argued that Huawei poses a risk to US national security. Western security experts, however, have said that China’s national security and intelligence laws require Chinese companies to comply with demands for information.

☆ U.S. stops provision of licences for export to China's Huawei - FT
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 30 (Reuters) - The Biden administration has stopped providing U.S. companies with licences to export to Chinese telecom equipment firm Huawei, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. commerce department had notified some companies that it would no longer grant the licences, the report said. This potentially implies a move towards total ban on the sale of American technology to Huawei. The commerce department, Huawei and chip equipment maker Applied Materials (AMAT.O) did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. In 2019, the Trump administration imposed a trade ban on Huawei, citing national security concerns, which barred the company from using Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Android for its new smartphones, among other critical U.S.-origin technologies.

☆ Tech firms lead companies with most December job cuts, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Michael S. Derby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - American technology firms dominated the number of announced job cuts in December, as some employers downsized workforces to brace for the prospect of difficult economic times looming ahead. The planned pace of layoffs in December was well above the 19,052 cuts announced in December 2021, the report said. For all of 2022, the report said there were 363,824 planned layoffs, up 13% from 2021. Tech companies, which have been facing rising challenges and withering stock prices, bore the brunt of the December planned job cuts, with 16,193. The report said that tech companies led announced job cuts for all of 2022, at 97,171 planned layoffs.

☆ New York man sentenced to 2 years for conspiring to steal GE secrets for China
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A New York man was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for conspiring to steal General Electric 's trade secrets to benefit China, the U.S. Justice Department said. Zheng was employed at GE Power in Schenectady, New York, as an engineer specializing in turbine sealing technology. He worked at GE from 2008 until the summer of 2018, the Justice Department said. The United States had accused the former GE engineer and another Chinese businessman named Zhaoxi Zhang in 2019 of stealing secrets and spying on GE to aid China. A U.S. federal court in Cincinnati sentenced a Chinese national in November to 20 years in prison after he was convicted of plotting to steal trade secrets from several U.S. aviation and aerospace companies.

☆ Factbox: Chinese companies added to U.S. entity list
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip sector to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry. YMTC was added to the list over fears it could divert American technology to previously blacklisted Chinese tech giants Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [RIC:RIC:HWT.UL] and Hikvision (002415.SZ). Here is a brief overview of some of the key actions taken as part of the package:FRESH ENTITY LISTINGSThe Biden administration added 35 Chinese companies and one Japan-based subsidiary of a Chinese company (YMTC) to the entity list, barring their suppliers from selling them U.S. technology without a hard-to-obtain permit. REMOVALS FROM THE UNVERIFIED LISTThe Biden administration removed 27 Chinese entities from the unverified list. Companies are added to the unverified list if the United States cannot complete on-site visits to determine whether they can be trusted to receive sensitive U.S. technology exports, inspections which in China require approval from the commerce ministry.

☆ Biden blacklists China's YMTC, crackdowns on AI chip sector
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry. It also comes as Congress prepares to finalize legislation to bar the U.S. government from buying products that contain semiconductors made by YMTC, Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT or China's top chip manufacturer SMIC. The Commerce Department on Thursday also targeted nine Chinese entities for allegedly seeking to support China's military modernization, including Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co Ltd (SMEE), China's only lithography company. Two of the Chinese companies removed from the unverified list - YMTC and SMEE- were added to the entity list. Being added to the unverified list forces U.S. suppliers to perform greater due diligence before shipping to the targeted companies.

The Special Technology Centre did not respond to a written request for comment. Russia's Ministry of Defence did not respond to questions from Reuters about the impact of sanctions and its relationship to the Special Technology Centre. Reached by phone, Alexey Terentyev, a top scientist and major shareholder at the Special Technology Centre, said the war has forced it to focus on making drones. Those corporate records show iLogic is based at the same St Petersburg office address as the Special Technology Centre. In a brief telephone interview, Roman Agafonnikov, chief executive officer of the Special Technology Centre, said he didn't know anything about iLogic.

☆ US toughens restrictions on Chinese tech firms linked to military
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Kevin Liptak | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Washington CNN —The United States added a major Chinese chipmaker and dozens of other Chinese companies to a trade blacklist Thursday as it works to restrict Beijing’s high-tech and artificial intelligence industries. Adding chipmaker YMTC to the list of restricted companies escalates Washington’s attempts to crack down on companies that could be used to bolster China’s military. The restrictions would ban US companies from shipping goods to some of the blacklisted companies without first obtaining a special license. The US has been working steadily to limit what business US companies can do with Chinese firms that the US suspects of aiding China’s military or its human rights abuses. As part of Thursday’s announcement, the US also said it was removing some Chinese companies from a so-called “watch list” after the firms were deemed to not pose a risk to US national security.

☆ US adds YMTC to trade blacklist, toughens restrictions on Chinese tech firms linked to military
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Kevin Liptak | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Washington CNN —The United States added a major Chinese chipmaker and dozens of other Chinese companies to a trade blacklist Thursday as it works to restrict Beijing’s high-tech and artificial intelligence industries. Adding chipmaker YMTC to the list of restricted companies escalates Washington’s attempts to crack down on companies that could be used to bolster China’s military. The restrictions would ban US companies from shipping goods to some of the blacklisted companies without first obtaining a special license. In October, the US imposed sweeping new curbs designed to curtail China’s access to technology critical to the manufacturing and operations of its military power. As part of Thursday’s announcement, the US also said it was removing some Chinese companies from a so-called “watch list” after the firms were deemed to not pose a risk to US national security.

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