China’s top chipmaker may be in hot water as US lawmakers call for further sanctions after Huawei ‘breakthrough’::Shares in SMIC, China’s largest contract chipmaker, plunged on Thursday, after two US congressmen called on the White House to further restrict export sales to the company.

  • Blapoo@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    “Hot water”? They seem pretty content about the breakthrough.

    Man, US penalizing foreign breakthroughs is pathetic.

    • CosmoNova@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      You don‘t get it. Huawei and the CCP made some propaganda about how the sanctions totally don‘t work and claimed they were able to produce a chip that is 5 years behind. It is however more likely it was a big bluff and they didn’t produce it themselves. So their plan of saying „Your sanctions only force us to innovate and will hurt you in the end so you might aswell lift them“ completely backfired. The US saw their propaganda and probably judt thought the sanctions weren‘t hard enough if China keeps getting chips supplied to them. Hot water is a nice euphemism for what China is in right now.

      • j4yt33@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        Where do you get that from? How do you know the chip is 5 years behind? In the article it says that people were surprised how advanced it is. Genuinely curious

        • CosmoNova@feddit.de
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          10 months ago

          Tech blogs and the like have long compared the specs and the conclusion was a difference of 3 generations to other high end phones which I was told is a 5 year gap. And if it really had been a fully domestic chip, developing it this quickly would have been quite the achievement actually. But parts from south korea were found so that was a short celebration.

      • HaggierRapscallier@feddit.nl
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        10 months ago

        Five seems like an exaggeration. I heard around three.

        probably judt thought the sanctions weren‘t hard enough

        They act in their own interests, you make it sound like sanctions are the state of nature.

        • iopq@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It’s around the level of A12 from 2018. Now, Android phones from 3 years ago are also this level, but still

        • CosmoNova@feddit.de
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          10 months ago

          They act in their own interests, you make it sound like sanctions are the state of nature.

          It is common practice in China itself. It is how they have dealt with pretty much everything so far. Why is it surprising the US follows suit?

          I heard 3 generations behind which is about 5 years. They also used components from south korea against sanctions. It is not fully domestic and that should hardly be a surprise.

      • freagle
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        10 months ago

        Jesus you’re delusional. China has no reason to spread propaganda to the US about the effectiveness of US sanctions. China is materially being sanctioned and that means there will be economic problems. It has a material incentive to solve those problems. Telling other people they solved the problem doesn’t solve the problem. Your entire narrative relies on China being motivated by something other than national development.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          Yes thats so ridiculous, god forbid anyone but north america and part of europe can even compete

  • JTode@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The fiction of the last 30 years is revealed to those with eyes to see.

    All this time the capital class and their lackeys have been saying “Russia is a our superfriend now and China wants to be democratic so we are helping them by using their slave labour and don’t you feel guilty for questioning our supremely good intentions here!”

    And meanwhile it’s the same old global power struggle, but you can make SO MUCH using slave labour, it was just too tempting to send every bit of our labour - even our high tech - over to their factories.

    • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      The CCP be like “oh no, I have this enormous population of exploitable laborers with minimal workers rights, sure hope some wealthy western capitalist don’t use them and make us rich in the process”.

      • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Thats ironic as fuck. Because nowadays chinese citizens have healthcare and north americans dont

        Apparently, if what you say is true, all paid for by working class north americans

        • freagle
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          10 months ago

          I mean, it’s not even a question. It’s pretty openly deliberate strategy from China based entirely on their open theoretical analysis and public 5-year plans. They knew the owning class was incentivized by profits and that the ideological conditions in the West after the decline of the USSR created a blindspots. So China created the conditions for foreign investment but was super open about intellectual property, government oversight and intervention, etc. The white billionaires saw the profit potential and went for it. It was the first time in history that the West voluntarily deindustrialized itself whole hog in favor of developing a subordinate country. Sure, in the past the West moves the most toxic industries to colonies and such, but that was all the evidence China needed that the trend could be expanded.

          They sold the capitalists the rope they’d be hung with, and the capitalists are still hoping they sell that rope for a profit.

        • FaeDrifter@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          The US healthcare system is poor, especially considering the considerable wealth of the US. But 91.7% of Americans have healthcare, and Canada and Mexico both have socialized healthcare.

          So when you say, “north americans dont (have healthcare)”, you’re guzzling the saddest lowest IQ attempt at propaganda I’ve ever seen.

          https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-brands-china-supply-chains-illegal-forced-labor-2022-12

          Western capitalists getting rich off CCP forced labor.

  • ram@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Ultimately though, does this matter? The smartphone userbase in China and India are a combined 6 times the size of the USA’s and are growing. Furthermore, the USA imports most of their tech from China, while China keeps their wealth largely internal. Even if the USA were to completely cutoff trade with China, it’s not like China’s doing nearly as much importing of manufactured goods, especially in the low-end, and it’s not as though China would be at a loss for trade partners even if every US ally followed suit.

    Cutting off trade to China, at least by what I can tell, would hurt the USA far more than China, or am I wrong?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Shares in SMIC, China’s largest contract chipmaker, plunged on Thursday, after two US congressmen called on the White House to further restrict export sales to the company.

    TechInsights, a research organization based in Canada specializing in semiconductors, revealed shortly after the launch that the smartphone contained a new 5G Kirin 9000s processor developed specifically for Huawei by SMIC.

    Texas Republican Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was quoted by Reuters as saying he was concerned about the possibility of China trying to “get a monopoly” in the manufacture of less-advanced computer chips.

    Chinese state media have touted the development as a sign the country had successfully “broken US sanctions” and “achieved technological independence” in advanced chipmaking.

    Meme makers on the Chinese internet have even crowned US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo the unofficial brand ambassador for the Mate 60 series.

    The memes poke fun at the idea that US sanctions, which are implemented and enforced by the US Commerce department, may have indirectly led to the launch of the new phone as China’s homegrown firms had to work with available technology.


    The original article contains 706 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • CosmoNova@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Chinese state media have touted the development as a sign the country had successfully “broken US sanctions” and “achieved technological independence” in advanced chipmaking

      They touted about it just enough to be heard but not nearly enough for how big of a deal that would be if it actually were true. I mean most people only read about it now that the US as announced further sanctions so I have my doubt it was anything but a propaganda campaign.

      Meme makers on the Chinese internet have even crowned US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo the unofficial brand ambassador for the Mate 60 series.

      The memes poke fun at the idea that US sanctions, which are implemented and enforced by the US Commerce department

      That isn‘t actually what the memes are really about. It was probably a backfire to photos taken of high ranking CCP officials and celebrities using iPhones because those are still huge status symbols in China. Many of them endorsed Chinese brands but privately used iPhones which is a pretty big blow to their propaganda machine. They have recently made the rounds on social media. So of course CCP shills photoshopped pictures of the US commerce secretary using Huawei who was visiting China at the moment. China also then announced their politicians are no longer allowed to carry apple products. Paired with the likelyhood that their domestic chip turns out to be a hoax, China is in quite a mess. And I didn‘t even talk about the floods in Shenzhen and Hong Kong that the CCP definitely does not want the world to see right now. It‘s a tragedy and definitely won‘t help their technology branches, many of which call these cities their homes.

  • hark@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    US crying and shitting its pants over the mere possibility of losing its top spot in the global market. I look forward to cheap computer parts. I thought the free market was a good thing. Only good when it screws over labor, huh?

      • hark@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        If companies were so afraid of having their IP stolen, why were they tripping over themselves to work with a totalitarian state? Imaginary Property theft is rampant in all developing countries and that includes the US when it was still developing.

      • LarkinDePark
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        10 months ago

        They stopped American companies in response to the same American action.

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    All of China is making fun of Usa, and all Usamericans start crying and throwing tantrums like nasty little children. Even their seniors in parliament.

    What a show.