Editorial | Latest US attack on Huawei AI chips only adds to trade tensions
Washington’s ban on anyone, anywhere using the Chinese firm’s Ascend series of processors endangers global commerce and has rightly earned the wrath of Beijing
The next round of talks is crucial to a positive outcome of the current pause in the United States-China trade war. But optimism that the 90-day truce widened a window for an eventual deal dimmed after the US opened a new front in the dispute.
The US has announced a new global ban on the use of advanced artificial intelligence-powered chips made by Chinese companies.
China has responded by threatening action under its anti-foreign sanctions law against any organisation or individual who enforces or helps implement the ban.
The ban singles out chips from domestic flagship Huawei Technologies. The latest in Huawei’s Ascend series of processors, the Ascend 920, has been touted as an alternative to Nvidia’s H20, which the US recently banned from sale in China.
According to guidance issued by the US Department of Commerce, use of Huawei Technologies’ Ascend series of artificial intelligence processors would breach US export control rules because the technology was likely developed in violation of that regime.
China slammed the guidance as “typical non-market and unilateral bullying practices”, deflating upbeat sentiment following trade talks in Geneva two weeks ago. It said the US had abused export controls to suppress China, in violation of international laws and the principles of international relations.