【Wen / Observers Network Wang Yi】 In recent days, a paper written by multiple Chinese semiconductor industry executives and academic figures has sparked heated discussions on the Internet.

On March 5, the Hong Kong English media "South China Morning Post" noticed that senior executives of several leading Chinese semiconductor companies and scholars jointly wrote an article, calling for the whole country to work together to create a Chinese version of ASML, the global lithography giant, urging the industry to "give up on fantasies and prepare for struggle" to cope with the tightening US technology blockade.

Reuters in the UK commented that the article calls for national-level collaborative efforts during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2026-2030) to develop practical lithography systems, reflecting China's policy direction of promoting higher-level technological self-reliance and strength.

The article was published in the "Science and Technology Guide" on April 4. The authors include Wang Yangyuan, honorary dean of the School of Integrated Circuits at Peking University and one of the founders of SMIC, Zhao Jinrong, chairman of North Star Semiconductor, Chen Nanxiang, chairman of Yangtze Memory Technologies, Liu Weiping, chairman of HuaDa Jiutian, and eight other industry professionals and scholars.

Their paper is divided into six sections, reviewing the development process of China's integrated circuit industry from the "Sixth Five-Year Plan" to the "14th Five-Year Plan", the current status of the industrial system and the global competitive landscape, sorting out China's breakthroughs and phased achievements in chip autonomy in the field of national security, pointing out existing problems such as insufficient transformation of "national effort", and proposing relevant suggestions.

Since 2020, semiconductor manufacturing has become one of the key battlegrounds in the Sino-US tech competition, with the U.S. continuously implementing restrictions to try to curb China's expansion of production capacity for advanced processes below 7nm.

The article pointed out that the United States attempts to stop China's rise in three areas: electronic design automation (EDA) used for chip design, extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) manufacturing equipment, and silicon wafers. Taking lithography machines as an example, "ASML's EUV has 100,000 components, with 5,000 component suppliers, and ASML is just the integrator."

ASML clean room, ASML website

EUV lithography machines are used to etch nanoscale patterns on silicon wafers and are the core equipment for manufacturing advanced chips. The United States has banned ASML from exporting EUV equipment to China.

The article states that China has made breakthrough progress in key areas of EUV, such as laser sources, moving platforms, and optical systems, but how to integrate these technologies into a complete industrial system through "national effort" is a problem that must be solved during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.

The authors wrote: "How to establish a Chinese ASML, allowing 'the integrator' to break free from the constraints of 'fame and profit', and unify the allocation of funds and human resources, is an urgent issue that relevant departments should immediately formulate implementation plans. Similarly, EDA and silicon wafers must also be guided at the national level, creating new win-win mechanisms through corporate cooperation."

Additionally, the article directly points out that the current Chinese semiconductor industry still faces serious issues of "small, scattered, weak, and homogenized competition". Currently, there are more than 100 EDA companies in China, 116 packaging and testing companies, 185 wafer manufacturing equipment companies, 224 packaging equipment companies, and 3,626 design companies. Among them, 1,769 companies have sales less than 10 million yuan, and small and medium enterprises with fewer than 100 employees account for 87.9% of the total number.

The authors believe that "scattered sand is difficult to gather into a tower," making it difficult for Chinese companies to face "army groups" like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Moreover, in a market economy, it is difficult to forcibly merge small and micro enterprises, leading to a large amount of public resources being occupied and dispersed.

At the time of the release of these appeals, China's annual National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were being held. On May 5, Premier Li Qiang of the State Council introduced the government's tasks for this year in his government work report, stating that efforts should be strengthened to provide financial services for the entire chain and lifecycle of scientific and technological innovation, and for technology companies in key core technology areas, a "green channel" mechanism for listing financing and mergers and acquisitions should be implemented on a regular basis to support innovation creation with science and technology finance.

These semiconductor industry professionals also proposed in the paper that mechanisms and incentive measures should be studied to allow tolerance, trial and error, and verification between upstream and downstream links in various production stages. Through domestic application subsidies, insurance, and other methods, the localization process of successfully developed products should be accelerated, shortening the time for domestic products to enter large-scale production lines; continue to increase investment in the integrated circuit industry; deploy basic research ten years in advance; strengthen international cooperation; and enhance the intensity of talent cultivation and attraction.

The article finally wrote, "Since core technologies cannot be bought, asked for, or borrowed, they can only be 'developed'. The road of the Chinese chip is full of obstacles, traps, thorns, and snakes, but no obstacle can block the steps of the Chinese nation's rise."

This article is exclusive to Observers Network, and without permission, it cannot be reprinted.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7613784594118099465/

Statement: The article represents the personal views of its author.