Commerce Ministers Hold Call, China Warns On US Chip Sanctions

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has issued comments following a call between Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his US counterpart Gina Raimondo earlier today. MOFCOM: "The two sides engaged in in-depth and pragmatic communication on issues of mutual concern in trade and economics, focusing on implementing the important consensus reached during the meeting of the heads of state in San Francisco."

• MOFCOM: "Both sides should utilize the positive role of the communication and exchange mechanism between the two countries' commerce departments to create favorable conditions for business cooperation."
• MOFCOM: "Wang Wentao specifically expressed serious concerns regarding the U.S. restrictions on third-party exports of photolithography machines to China, investigations into the supply chain for mature process chips, and sanctions against Chinese companies."
• MOFCOM: "The two sides also discussed issues related to the boundaries of national security in the China-U.S. trade and economic field."
• Raimondo vociferously defendedthe latest round of tech export controls in a Dec 2023 speech, calling China the “biggest threat we’ve ever had”, warning that "Every day China wakes up trying to figure out how to do an end run around our export controls … which means every minute of every day, we have to wake up tightening those controls and being more serious about enforcement with our allies,”.
• In response to the export controls, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spox Wang Wenbin said the US should “stop seeing China as a hypothetical enemy” while deriding US sanctions as like “building a dam with a sieve”.