Concern grows over China's chip ambition

Hong Kong

CHINA is spending billions of dollars on a major push to make its own microchips, an effort that could bolster its military capabilities as well as its home-grown technology industry.

Those ambitions are starting to get noticed in Washington. Worries over China's chip ambitions were the main reason that US officials blocked the proposed purchase for as much as US$2.9 billion of a controlling stake in a unit of the Dutch electronics company Philips by Chinese investors, according to one specialist and a second person involved with the deal discussions.