China bans chips from Micron Technology; read why
China says chips made by US memory tech giant Micron Technology are a national security threat.
The nation’s cyberspace regulator reported on Sunday that America’s greatest maker of memory chips Micron Technology poses “serious network security threats”.
The company’s products will be barred from critical infrastructure projects in the planet’s second-largest economy. It is China’s first significant action against US chip producers as tensions rise between Beijing and Washington.
The announcement is the latest action in a deepening dispute between the US and China over the technology essential to economies worldwide.
The long-running conflict has seen Washington set action against Beijing’s chip-making industry and fund billions of dollars to facilitate America’s semiconductor sector.
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The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) stated: “The review saw that Micron’s chips have serious network security threats, which pose significant security dangers to China’s vital information infrastructure supply chain, impacting China’s national protection.”
The CAC did not provide details of the threats it said it had seen or in which Micron chips it had found them.
A Micron representative confirmed to the BBC that the firm had “got the CAC’s statement following its check of Micron products sold in China”.
“We are assessing the decision and evaluating our next measures. We look ahead to continuing talks with Chinese leaders,” they continued.
In reply, the US government said it would work with allies to handle the “grimaces of the memory chip market driven by China’s moves”.
