The US plan to block China on chips will backfire

AMERICA’S push to steer the world towards protectionism won’t end well. Not just for China, but for its own technological ambitions and for Japan’s industrial giants at the centre of chipmaking.

Expanding the restrictions unveiled by President Joe Biden in October, officials from the United States, Netherlands and Japan have reached an agreement to ban supply of some advanced chipmaking equipment to Chinese companies, Bloomberg News reported. The measures are directed at China and aim to curtail its ability to move up the value chain for semiconductor manufacturing, an industry Beijing has long struggled to get off the ground.

China has filed a dispute with the World Trade Organization in protest and this week told the Netherlands it wants to ensure the “stability of international industrial and supply chains, and safeguard an open rather than divisive” trade environment.