China Criticises US Order To TSMC To Halt Chip Shipments

China's Taiwan Affairs Office expressed strong disapproval on Wednesday of a US order instructing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to stop supplying advanced chips to certain Chinese clients. The office accused the United States of ‘playing the Taiwan card’ to heighten tensions across the Taiwan Straits, as reported by Reuters.

Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, stated that the US directive is intended to strain the situation between Taiwan and China, while also undermining the business interests of Taiwanese companies. This statement is China’s first official response to the Reuters report on Sunday that the US had ordered TSMC to halt certain shipments, a directive which TSMC reportedly began following on Monday.

The targeted chips, frequently used in artificial intelligence applications, were flagged as a concern by US lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, who have raised questions over the effectiveness of export controls on Chinese tech access. Tensions have been further aggravated as Washington’s actions focus on Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has remained on a restricted trade list, barring unlicensed exports from US-linked suppliers.

A few weeks ago, TSMC alerted the US Commerce Department upon discovering that one of its chips had been incorporated into a Huawei AI processor, likely prompting the latest restriction order.

Huawei, a central figure in recent US-China trade disputes, continues to face restrictive trade measures that require suppliers to obtain licenses before providing technology to the company. The current TSMC shipment halt follows a history of US restrictions on Huawei and Chinese technology, which the Biden administration has intensified, citing national security concerns.