Any industry looking to ramp up access to computer chips in 2024 is in for a rough time. Anti-Chinese tech feelings are alive and well, and according to Bloomberg’s Debby Wu, the election year is likely to bring more sanctions in that same spirit.
Certainly, some of the negativity is founded. As Wu states, “Concern about Beijing’s military aspirations in the Taiwan Strait and beyond has been cited as a key reason to prevent advanced semiconductors and chipmaking gear being sold and shipped to China.” Both Republicans and Democrats have decried support for Beijing when it comes to sharing technology.
“Anti-China sentiment is one of the few points of bipartisan agreement in US politics, and it’s found an expression in tech export curbs to the Asian nation,” Wu writes.
Another impetus for possible sanctions is the desire to reintroduce some manufacturing jobs to United States soil, given that the States “lost about a million manufacturing jobs between 1999 and 2011 to stiff Chinese competition.” The current economic landscape certainly will favor anyone who can bolster it with additional jobs, and implementing such a practice wouldn’t hurt Biden’s chances at reelection.
While Chinese-manufactured computer chips are reportedly “a few years behind the cutting edge,” they appear to be making increased production of chips–a sought-after goal since delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic–a priority in 2024, according to Wu.
Some ramifications of tensions between the two superpowers have included attempts to slow Chinese ambitions, with Wu writing that the United States “did successfully pressure Dutch authorities and ASML Holding NV into hastening the halt of shipments of some advanced chipmaking machines to China,” delaying Chinese production initiatives even further.
Additionally, it looks like an investigation into United States industry reliance on Chinese chips is in the works, with a possible end goal being tariffs to “??prevent China from dumping legacy semiconductors, chips that aren’t cutting-edge but still vital to industries, in the US market like it did with steel and solar,” writes Wu.
For the time being, it seems that two things are true: the chip war–and a profound lack of general availability thereof–will continue to rage throughout 2024, if for no other reason than tensions brought on by an election year; and anti-Chinese technology sentiment, pervasive as ever, will continue to inform US policy when interacting with the superpower.
Jack Lloyd has a BA in Creative Writing from Forest Grove's Pacific University; he spends his writing days using his degree to pursue semicolons, freelance writing and editing, oxford commas, and enough coffee to kill a bear. His infatuation with rain is matched only by his dry sense of humor.
