中國追求科技“自力更生”，增加全球不安 (1/2)

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China pursues tech 'self-reliance,' fueling global unease (1/2)

JOE McDONALD

Mon, December 27, 2021, 7:27 PM PST

BEIJING (AP) — To help make China a self-reliant “technology superpower,” the ruling Communist Party is pushing the world's biggest e-commerce company to take on the tricky, expensive business of designing its own processor chips — a business unlike anything Alibaba Group has done before.

Its 3-year-old chip unit, T-Head, unveiled its third processor in October, the Yitian 710 for Alibaba's cloud computing business. Alibaba says for now, it has no plans to sell the chip to outsiders.

Other rookie chip developers including Tencent, a games and social media giant, and smartphone brand Xiaomi are pledging billions of dollars in line with official plans to create computing, clean energy and other technology that can build China’s wealth and global influence.

Processor chips play an increasingly critical role in products from smartphones and cars to medical devices and home appliances. Shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic are disrupting global manufacturing and adding to worries about supplies.

Chips are a top priority in the ruling Communist Party's marathon campaign to end China's reliance on technology from the United States, Japan and other suppliers Beijing sees as potential economic and strategic rivals. If it succeeds, business and political leaders warn that might slow down innovation, disrupt global trade and make the world poorer.

“Self-reliance is the foundation for the Chinese nation,” President Xi Jinping said in a speech released in March. He called for China to become a “technology superpower” to safeguard “national economic security.”

“We must strive to become the world’s main center of science and the high ground of innovation,” Xi said.

Beijing might be chasing a costly disappointment. Even with huge official investments, businesspeople and analysts say chipmakers and other companies will struggle to compete if they detach from global suppliers of advanced components and technology — a goal no other country is pursuing.

“It’s hard to imagine any one country rebuilding all of that and having the best technology,” said Peter Hanbury, who follows the industry for Bain & Co.

Beijing’s campaign is adding to tension with Washington and Europe, which see China as a strategic competitor and complain it steals technology. They limit access to tools needed to improve its industries.

If the world were to decouple, or split into markets with incompatible standards and products, U.S.- or European-made parts might not work in Chinese computers or cars. Smartphone makers who have a single dominant global operating system and two network standards might need to make unique versions for different markets. That could slow down development.

Washington and Beijing need to “avoid that the world becomes separated,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press in September.

China's factories assemble the world’s smartphones and tablet computers but need components from the United States, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Chips are China’s biggest import, ahead of crude oil, at more than $300 billion last year.

Official urgency over that grew after Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand, lost access to U.S. chips and other technology in 2018 under sanctions imposed by the White House.

That crippled the telecom equipment maker’s ambition to be a leader in next-generation smartphones. American officials say Huawei is a security risk and might aid Chinese spying, an accusation the company denies.

Huawei and some Chinese rivals are close to matching Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc., South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Britain’s Arm Ltd. at being able to design “bleeding edge” logic chips for smartphones, according to industry analysts.

But when it comes to making them, foundries such as state-owned SMIC in Shanghai are up to a decade behind industry leaders including TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., which produces chips for Apple Inc. and other global brands.

(to be continued)

Translation

北京（美聯社）- 為了幫助中國成為一個自力更生的“技術超級大國”，執政共產黨正在推動世界上最大的電子商務公司承擔設計自己的處理器芯片的棘手、昂貴的業務 - 這是一項阿里巴巴集團以前從未做過的類似的業務。

擁有 3 年歷史的阿里巴巴芯片部門 平头哥 (T-Head) 於 10 月推出了它的第三款處理器，即用於阿里巴巴雲計算業務的倚天 710。阿里巴巴表示，目前沒有向外界出售該芯片的計劃。

其他新秀芯片開發商，包括遊戲和社交媒體巨頭騰訊，以及智能手機品牌小米，都承諾投入數十億美元，以配合官方計劃，開發計算、清潔能源, 和其他能夠建立中國財富和世界影響力的技術能力。

從智能手機和汽車到醫療設備和家用電器的產品中, 芯片處理器發揮著越來越重要的作用。冠狀病毒大流行造成的短缺正在擾亂全球製造業，並加劇了對供應的擔憂。

芯片是執政共產黨馬拉松式運動的重中之重，旨在結束中國對美國、日本和其他被北京視為潛在經濟和戰略競爭對手的供應商的技術的依賴。如果成功，商界和政界領袖警告說，這可能會減緩創新、擾亂全球貿易並使世界變得更窮。

習近平主席在3月份發表的講話中說: “自力更生是中華民族的根本” 。他呼籲中國成為“技術超級大國”，以維護“國家經濟安全”。

習近平說: “我們要努力成為世界主要的科學中心和創新高地” 。

北京可能正在追求代價高昂的失望。即使有大量官方投資，商界人士和分析師表示，如果芯片製造商和其他公司脫離先進組件和技術的全球供應商，它們將難以競爭 - 這是其他國家沒有追求的目標。

幫助 Bain & Co. 關注該行業的 Peter Hanbury 說: “很難想像有哪個國家能夠重建所有這些並擁有最好的技術” 。

北京的活動加劇了與華盛頓和歐洲的緊張關係，後者將中國視為戰略競爭對手並抱怨中國竊取技術。他們限中國制進接對改善其行業所需的工具。

如果世界脫鉤或分裂而使標準產品不兼容的市場，美國或歐洲製造的零件可能無法在中國的計算機或汽車中使用。擁有單一主導全球操作系統和兩種網絡標準的智能手機製造商可能需要為不同的市場製作獨特的版本。這可能會減緩發展。

聯合國秘書長安東尼奧·古特雷斯 (Antonio Guterres) 在 9 月對美聯社說，華盛頓和北京需要“避免世界分離”。

中國的工廠組裝了全世界的智能手機和平板電腦，但需要來自美國、歐洲、日本、台灣和韓國的零部件。芯片是中國最大的進口商品，僅次於原油，去年進口額超過 3000 億美元。

在中國首個全球科技品牌華為技術有限公司於 2018 年因白宮實施制裁而無法獲得美國芯片和其他技術之後，中國官方對此的緊迫感有所增加。

這削弱了華為電信設備製造商成為下一代智能手機領導者的雄心。美國官員稱華為存在安全風險，可能會幫助中國從事間諜活動，但該公司否認了這一指控。

行業分析師表示，在能夠為智能手機設計 “bleeding edge” 邏輯芯片方面，華為和一些中國競爭對手已接近能與英特爾、高通、韓國三星電子和英國 Arm 公司匹敵。

但在製造方面，上海的國有中芯國際等代工廠落後於包括台積電 (TSMC) 在內的行業領導者長達十年之久，台積電為蘋果公司和其他全球品牌生產芯片。

（未完待續）