U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order to implement the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which was signed into law earlier this month, the White House said in an announcement.

"CHIPS", which is the abbreviation for "Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors", is a legislation that will help bolster U.S. technology leadership, according to the president's statement. 

Biden's order eyes several implementation priorities, including efforts to build domestic manufacturing capacity that reduces reliance on foreign productions of leading-edge and mature microelectronics, catalyze private-sector investment, establish network for microelectronics research and innovation, and expand regional manufacturing and innovation ecosystems. 

The order also establishes an inter-agency CHIPS implementation council, which is co-chaired by the assistants to the president for economic policy and national security affairs, and the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The council's members include secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Commerce, Labor and Energy.

China has said it strongly opposes the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act as the provisions will distort global supply chains of the semiconductor sector.

China's Ministry of Commerce said last week that the U.S. law is "obviously discriminatory", as it provides huge amounts of subsidies and tax incentives to the U.S. local chip industry while restricts the economic, trade and investment activities of relevant enterprises in China. 

Commerce Ministry spokesperson Shu Jueting said China will take forceful measures to safeguard its legitimate rights when necessary. 

(Cover via CFP)