【Text by Observers Network, Xiong Chaoran】As one of the "originators" of the technology export control policies during the Biden administration, former U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo publicly stated on November 13 that the United States needs to better coordinate with allies to prevent China from obtaining advanced chips and cutting-edge products. At the same time, she also criticized the Trump administration's previous plan to allow the sale of certain NVIDIA chips to China.

According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, on November 14, Raimondo said on November 13 at a panel discussion event hosted by the U.S. think tank Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) that, given China's massive investment in establishing technological leadership, the U.S. government should adopt a more precise approach to balance corporate interests and economic security interests.

"Export controls are a very powerful tool in the U.S. government's toolbox. I believe it should be used precisely with allies to prevent China from obtaining our most advanced technologies that they do not have," she claimed: "I believe we now have better and more complex chips, and in the end, they should not get them."

Photo of former U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo attending a think tank event

From the Biden administration to the Trump administration, the United States has implemented a series of chip export restrictions to block and suppress China's technological development, and these measures have been continuously tightened, with NVIDIA's AI chips being the "top priority." For this reason, NVIDIA sought to sell a "deconfigured special version" H20 chip to China, but was still closely monitored by the Trump administration.

According to reports, Raimondo made the above remarks when asked about NVIDIA's resumption of sales of H20 chips to China in July. In addition, NVIDIA had also planned to launch a new special chip for China.

On November 6, the emerging tech media in Silicon Valley, "The Information," citing three sources, reported exclusively that although President Trump had previously hinted at allowing it during the summer, the White House has now informed other federal agencies that it will not allow NVIDIA to sell its latest deconfigured artificial intelligence (AI) chip to China.

The report said that NVIDIA has provided samples of the chip named "B30A" to several of its Chinese customers. Once efficiently deployed in large clusters, this chip can be used to train large language models. The report also cited two NVIDIA employees who said that the company is trying to modify the design of the B30A chip and hopes that the U.S. government will reconsider its position.

Currently, NVIDIA appears to be in an increasingly awkward situation between China and the United States, especially as the controversy surrounding the company continues to expand and spread.

On July 31, in order to maintain the cybersecurity and data security of Chinese users, China questioned NVIDIA and required it to explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding the security risks of backdoors in the H20 computing power chips sold to China.

On August 10, the Financial Times reported that American chip companies such as NVIDIA have agreed to "contribute" (or called "pay a commission") 15% of their revenue from chip sales in China to the U.S. government to obtain export licenses issued by the Trump administration. The public was shocked.

On September 15, the Chinese regulatory authorities again issued a statement saying that NVIDIA violated the Anti-monopoly Law and decided to conduct further investigations in accordance with the law.

At the same time, the outside world has begun to discuss whether the U.S. export controls may accelerate China's investments and ultimately lead to U.S. companies like NVIDIA losing their market share in China.

As China strives to develop its own chip manufacturing capabilities, in early October, NVIDIA's founder and CEO Huang Renxun revealed at an event in New York hosted by Citadel Securities that NVIDIA's market share in China had dropped from 95% to 0. "Currently, we have completely exited the Chinese market." "It is unimaginable for any decision-maker to think it is a good idea that the policies we implement in the U.S. caused the U.S. to lose one of the largest markets in the world, dropping to 0."

"Taking away the revenue of U.S. companies is bad. That's why (export controls) must be used cautiously, and that's not easy," Raimondo said at the event that day.

However, what Raimondo said to U.S. companies during her tenure as U.S. Commerce Secretary was not as pleasant as now.

Last December, before she left office, Raimondo expressed dissatisfaction at the Reagan Defense Forum with the industry's resistance to export controls, particularly criticizing NVIDIA: "Their business is to make money. Every time I take action, I take away their income. We must remain vigilant against the threats from China and deal with them together."

The South China Morning Post pointed out that during Raimondo's tenure as U.S. Commerce Secretary, she led the formulation of the 2022 "Chips Act" and the high-end chip export ban against China, and pushed for the concept of the so-called "Chip4 Alliance" (Chip4) consisting of the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to strengthen chip industry cooperation and counter mainland China.

Although Raimondo claimed that she firmly believes the U.S. should take an active strategy to focus more on enhancing its own technological capabilities, she still emphasized that export controls are crucial for "national security." "U.S. national security cannot be sold, and U.S. national security cannot be compromised," she insisted.

"Regardless of who is in power, I believe the U.S. needs to intensify efforts, work in a bipartisan way, and communicate more actively with allies and countries that want to reduce their dependence on China," she claimed at the event: "We must be more proactive and strategic, adopt a comprehensive approach to engage with these countries, and reach agreements with our private sector."

Previously, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that China has repeatedly expressed a firm stance on the U.S. maliciously blocking and suppressing China's semiconductor industry. The U.S. politicizes, over-safeguards, and instrumentalizes trade and technology issues, continuously tightening export controls on chips to China, and coercing other countries to suppress China's semiconductor industry. Such actions hinder the global semiconductor industry's development and will eventually harm itself, harming both sides.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572420496336110120/

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