Hong Kong
CNN
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Just days after the United States and China declared a temporary truce over tariffs, tempers are already flaring: this time over the future of Beijing’s most advanced homegrown semiconductors.
Over the past week, Beijing has repeatedly lashed out at Washington for warning companies against using AI chips made by national tech champion Huawei. It has even accused the Trump administration of “undermining” a consensus reached at recent trade talks in Geneva, where both sides agreed to temporarily roll back tariffs and use a 90-day window to hash out a broader deal.
The conflict over Huawei’s most advanced chips serves as a reality check that despite the positive words shared by US and Chinese negotiators last week, there are still sharp differences between the two sides on a variety of subjects that may be difficult to bridge.
On Wednesday, China’s Commerce Ministry fired its latest broadside, accusing the US of “abusing export controls to suppress and contain China” and engaging in what it called “typical acts of unilateral bullying and protectionism.”
China was responding to the Trump administration’s announcement last week rescinding a set of Biden-era curbs meant to keep AI chips out of the hands of foreign adversaries.
As part of that announcement, the US Commerce Department issued guidance on May 12 warning companies that “using Huawei Ascend chips anywhere in the world would violate US export controls.” The department has since changed its wording to remove the reference of “anywhere in the world” in an updated version of the statement.
The Ascend chips are Huawei’s most powerful AI processors, which are used to train AI models and aim to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in designing high-end chips. Huawei’s efforts are central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s plans to build up China’s own capacity to develop cutting-edge chips as it vies for AI supremacy with the US.
CNN has reached out to Huawei for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
