Democratic Members of the U.S. House Propose Legislation Requiring Congressional Approval Before Selling Advanced AI Chips to China

On Friday, Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a new bill that sets legal barriers for selling advanced artificial intelligence chips to China without congressional approval. The bill attempts to set clear legal boundaries in the ongoing debate over how strictly to control the flow of technology under national security concerns.

The bill, titled "The 2025 Act Prohibiting the Export of Advanced Chips to China," was introduced by U.S. Representative Krishnaswami from Illinois, U.S. Representative Bella from California, and U.S. Representative Tokuda from Hawaii, aiming to prevent the export of certain advanced artificial intelligence chips to China unless approved by an inter-agency review led by the U.S. Department of Commerce and a joint resolution passed by the U.S. Congress.

According to a news release announcing the legislative move, "The bill requires dual approvals for the export, re-export, or transfer of any advanced artificial intelligence semiconductor to the People's Republic of China (PRC): (1) approval by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce after an inter-agency review with the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Energy, and the Secretary of State; and (2) a joint resolution passed by the U.S. Congress approving specific transactions."

The bill also mandates a review of national security factors, including the impact on U.S. national security and technological leadership; potential risks such as military applications in China; availability of similar technologies from other sources; and the economic impact on U.S. companies and workers.

The bill requires submitting a detailed report to the U.S. Congress regarding the chips, the intended Chinese recipients and their uses, the analysis conducted, and the basis for any approvals, to ensure transparency.

In addition, the bill provides limited exceptions for humanitarian purposes, operations of U.S. diplomatic/consular missions in China, and repairs or replacements of previously legally exported products. It also includes a three-year "sunset" provision to allow the U.S. Congress to reassess and refine the system as technology and threats evolve.

According to the aforementioned news release, the definition of "advanced artificial intelligence semiconductors" in the bill is as follows: "A chip will be covered if it exceeds any of the following thresholds: total processing performance exceeding 2400 or performance density of 1.6 or higher; dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) bandwidth exceeding 4100 GB/s; interconnect bandwidth exceeding 1100 GB/s; or the sum of DRAM and interconnect bandwidth exceeding 5100 GB/s."

The news release stated: "This legislation is a direct response to President Trump's recent announcement allowing the export of a reduced version of NVIDIA's advanced Blackwell series chips to China. Even these 'downgraded' chips could accelerate Beijing's ability to build artificial intelligence supercomputers, threatening America's technological leadership and national security. The 'Prohibiting the Export of Advanced Chips to China Act' requires approval from the U.S. Congress to ensure that these critical decisions are not made unilaterally or through backdoor deals, but rather undergo transparent and rigorous reviews aligned with American security interests."

For the bill to become law, it needs to be passed by both chambers of the U.S. Congress, which is dominated by Republicans, but the chances of passing the bill in both chambers without Republican support would be very slim.

Krishnaswami, who serves as the vice chairman of the U.S. House Select Committee on U.S.-China Strategic Competition, said, "For years, China has treated America's cutting-edge chips as a buffet, driving military modernization and influence campaigns. This bill ends that practice. If an advanced artificial intelligence chip is to be sold to the People's Republic of China, the U.S. government must prove that its export serves our national security. Either the U.S. Congress says 'Yes,' or it completely disapproves."

President Trump opened the door earlier this month to the possibility of selling more advanced NVIDIA chips to China beyond the H20 chip designed for the Chinese market, and reached an agreement with NVIDIA and AMD, under which the U.S. government will receive a 15% share of sales revenue from some advanced chips in China.

Reuters reported this week that NVIDIA is developing a new chip tentatively named B30A, based on its latest Blackwell architecture, which will be more powerful than the H20 chip. When asked about the B30A chip, Huang Renxun told reporters in Taipei on Friday that NVIDIA is negotiating with the U.S. government on providing follow-up products to the H20 chip to China, but this is not a decision the company can make on its own. Huang Renxun said, "Of course, it depends on the U.S. government. We are in dialogue with them, but it's too early to say anything now."

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1841251356410951/

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