China bans purchases from US chipmaker Micron

ANKARA

China has banned operators of important infrastructure in the country from purchasing products from the largest US maker of computer memory chips, saying they pose a “national security risk.” 

The Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement Sunday that the Network Security Review Office conducted a cybersecurity review of Micron Technology’s products sold in China and found that they “pose a major security risk to the country’s key information infrastructure supply chain and affect the country’s national security.”

The statement did not specify the products reviewed or the methods used to review them. The Cyberspace Administration department said companies from all countries were welcome to enter the Chinese market, provided “they abide by Chinese laws and regulations.”

The decision is China’s first major move against a US chip maker and another development in the widening rift between the world’s two largest economies over the chip technology. These tensions have seen Washington take a series of measures against Beijing’s chip making industry.

China’s move was criticized by the US Commerce Department, which said that Beijing’s assertions have “no basis in fact and called the Micron ruling and recent “raids and targeting of other American firms inconsistent with Beijing’s stated commitment to an open market and transparent regulatory framework.”

On Monday, China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said the Ministry of Commerce will continue to provide “precise and efficient service guarantees for foreign-funded enterprises and projects, protect the rights and interests of foreign investors in accordance with the law, and create a market-oriented, law-based and international first-class business environment.”

Wang presided over a symposium in Shanghai that was attended by representatives from the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Dow, Merck, Honeywell and other American companies.

“China will promote high-level opening up to the outside world, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, put attracting foreign investment in a more important position, and steadily expand institutional opening up such as rules, regulations, management and standards,” he said.

Micron, whose share price tumbled 5.3% in pre-market trading in the US, has manufacturing facilities in China which generated nearly 10% of its full-year sales. Out of the total revenue of $30.7 billion reported by Micron in 2022, $3.3 billion came from mainland China.

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