Targeting China's advanced chips is another step in the wrong direction

Editor's note: Mei Xingong is a commentator on international affairs for CGTN. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

Recent U.S. moves to pressure other countries to stop using Chinese advanced computing chips, including Huawei's Ascend series, represent another step of economic bullying and protectionism.

While framed as a matter of national security, the U.S. initiative raises deeper questions about fairness, market principles and the long-term implications for global technological development. Such moves do little to hinder China's technological progress but instead undercut supply chain stability and infringe upon other nations' legitimate rights to pursue their own paths in artificial intelligence (AI).

Export controls won't hold back China's high-tech development

U.S. export controls on China's semiconductor industry have fallen short of their goal. Instead, they spurred China's domestic chip ecosystem, with companies like Huawei, Biren, Enflame and Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation to make rapid progress.

China's chip exports doubled from 559.1 billion Chinese yuan ($77.85 billion) in 2018 to over 1.1 trillion yuan in 2024. Despite temporary setbacks due to U.S. suppression, most Chinese high-tech companies endured and emerged stronger – and some have now launched fully self-developed computer operating systems, from kernel to application ecosystem.

Take Huawei as an example. After sharp revenue declines due to U.S. export restrictions in 2019, it made a strong comeback; by 2024, its revenue had surpassed the 2019 peak. On May 19, Huawei unveiled a new line of personal computers powered by its self-developed Harmony OS. Its new AI chips are said to approach Nvidia's performance but at 60-70 percent of the cost.

A few years ago, the U.S. targeted China's 5G technologies, attempting to edge China out of the world market. But according to statistics from Strand Consult, a Denmark-based telecom consultancy, one-third of 5G sites in 32 European countries were still using Chinese network equipment as of the fourth quarter of 2024. It is projected that by 2028, Chinese 5G equipment will continue to hold a market share of 29 percent to 32 percent in Europe.

Rather than limiting China's tech innovation, the U.S. containment has galvanized it – fueling a wave of breakthroughs in emerging technologies.

Spillovers: Undermining competition and disrupting supply chains

By pressuring other countries to fall in line with its export control logic, the U.S. is effectively trying to extend its domestic rules into the global marketplace. This extraterritorial reach bypasses multilateral frameworks and contradicts the very principles of open competition and market fairness that the U.S. has long championed.

If every country adopted a similar logic – weaponizing market access based on strategic calculations – the global technology ecosystem would become a battlefield of zero-sum games, rather than a space for shared progress.

Moreover, these measures could weigh heavily on American companies as well. For example, Nvidia's H20 chip – designed specifically to comply with export rules – was still restricted, causing Nvidia to lose $5.5 billion. Nvidia is not the only case: U.S. firms are increasingly cut off from the Chinese market, eroding their global competitiveness and innovation capacity.

Beyond that, such measures cause significant volatility in global supply chains that depend on cross-border collaboration and efficiency. Advanced chips are deeply embedded in a wide array of products – from smartphones and electric vehicles to medical devices and industrial systems. Targeting Chinese producers creates systemic effects that ripple throughout the supply chain, driving up costs, delaying innovation and fragmenting the global market.

Safeguarding national security should not be used as a catch-all excuse. Policies aiming to exclude and dominate ultimately undermine the trust and balance required to govern emerging technologies. As Bill Gates recently noted in a CNN interview, neither China nor the U.S. will permanently dominate the tech space. The real opportunity lies in using innovation to create shared gains, not artificial barriers.

China will continue to pursue high-quality development, expand its scientific capabilities, and open new paths through collaboration. With an innovation-driven strategy already delivering results, China is proving that progress is best achieved through openness and persistence – not confrontation.

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