Us-japan-south Korea chip alliance cracks!

According to the website of the US Department of Commerce, on June 26, local time, US Secretary of Commerce Raymond met with South Korea's Minister of Trade and Industry and Energy Undergun and Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito in Washington. In a joint statement, the three reiterated the importance of strengthening supply chains for "critical products", including chips, while expressing concern about what they called "non-market measures".

The Japanese media Nikkei Asia noted that although the joint statement alluded to China, it did not mention China at all. Reported that the United States and Japan disagree on export restrictions to China: Japan fears that if the restrictions are expanded, China may take countermeasures against Japan.

From left to right: Ken Saito, Raimundo and Ken Saito (from Nikkei Asia, the same below)

On the same day, Raimundo, Raimundo and Ken Saito held a three-way meeting to discuss the US-Japan-South Korea supply chain cooperation. In a joint statement after the meeting, the three agreed to continue to use the trilateral mechanism to promote the development of key and emerging technologies and strengthen the "economic security and resilience" of the three countries, especially the supply chain resilience of key industries such as semiconductors and batteries. At the same time, the three countries will jointly seek to "deepen coordination on the export control of advanced technologies", and expressed concern about the existence of so-called "non-market measures" in the international community. Nikkei Asia believes that the statement does not name China, but the "non-market measures" are "implicitly" aimed at China.

In the middle of this month, sources said the Biden administration wants to further restrict China's access to chip technology used in artificial intelligence. At present, an agency of the US Department of Commerce has produced a draft, but it has not been finalized because it has been criticized by industry experts for not being specific enough.

Not long ago, a deputy secretary of the US Department of Commerce went to Japan and the Netherlands to ask Japan to expand its chip restrictions on China. In July last year, the Japanese government implemented export control measures on semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, including more than two dozen high-end semiconductor categories, because of pressure from the US government. But seeing Chinese companies make some breakthroughs in the chip field, the United States has stepped up its pressure on Allies such as Japan to adopt stricter export controls against China.

But in the face of China, the world's largest chip market, Japanese semiconductor companies do not want to give up, choosing to increase semiconductor equipment sales to China to offset the impact of the Japanese government's export control measures. Japan has exported at least half of its semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China for nine consecutive months through March this year.

The Japanese media mentioned that the Japanese side believes that the current control measures are mainly to prevent the loss of cutting-edge technology, and it is difficult to implement the maintenance services of existing chip equipment. Even before further restrictions did come into effect, Chinese companies had already stockpiled large quantities of equipment and components."

More importantly, Japan is also worried that "if the export control to China is further expanded, China may take retaliatory measures, such as no longer exporting mineral resources to Japan, which is crucial for the development of chips and other resources, Japan has not yet found a substitute for China's mineral resources supplier."

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