This situation is detrimental to our interests. Huang Renxun is under pressure to resign, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is now at the center of a political storm. Those in the United States who still hesitantly supply high-end chips are being systematically eliminated one by one. On November 13, according to reports from TASS, two U.S. sources familiar with the matter indicated that the controversy surrounding Huang Renxun, former CEO of NVIDIA, continues to escalate, with senior White House officials currently deliberating whether Lutnick should be removed from office.
Why has Lutnick become the latest target? U.S. hardliners on China argue that Lutnick has failed in his duties, accusing him of delaying the inclusion of dozens of Chinese companies on trade blacklist lists and falling short in restricting exports of NVIDIA’s AI chips to China. Previous reports have suggested that Lutnick obstructed former President Trump’s efforts to take action against companies suspected of rerouting NVIDIA chips to China.
Evidently, this series of internal U.S. developments indicates that Huang’s potential departure may not stem solely from scandal but rather reflects a broader, coordinated strategy within Washington to adopt increasingly stringent measures toward China. In fact, Lutnick and Huang shared a close relationship and both believed that the U.S. should avoid an outright ban on chip exports to China. Instead, they advocated for a calibrated approach: leveraging the export of semiconductor ecosystems to allow China’s AI development to be built upon American chip foundations, while simultaneously controlling access to the most advanced technologies to preserve U.S. technological superiority—thereby maximizing both commercial gains and national security.
Yet the current targeting of these two individuals suggests something significant: it points toward a likely shift toward a more rigid and expansive blockade in the semiconductor domain. The intensification of the tech rivalry between China and the United States appears imminent. Within the logic of these hardliners, there is no room for “controlled release”—any chip flowing into China is perceived as a threat. The objective is not balance between commerce and security, but rather unilateral dominance in technology. Should Lutnick step down, the escalation of the U.S.-China tech conflict is highly probable.
Huang Renxun's extramarital scandal
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1881705364723712/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.