美國對中國芯片公司的人才禁令阻礙了習近平的主要野心

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

Ban on US Talent at China Chip Firms Thwarts Xi’s Key Ambition

Bloomberg News

Mon, October 17, 2022 at 2:53 p.m.

(Bloomberg) -- China will speed its efforts to build a legion of talent and win the battle to develop homegrown technologies, President Xi Jinping pledged at the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Sunday. But new US restrictions issued a week earlier are already undercutting those plans.

The Biden administration’s latest salvo of sanctions includes restrictions on so-called US persons supporting the development, production or use of integrated circuits at some chip plants located in China. Effective Oct. 12, the measures are broad enough to encompass holders of US green cards as well as US residents and American citizens, capturing a wide swath of senior executives at Chinese semiconductor firms.

The country will “attract the best minds from all areas to the cause of the Party and the people,” Xi said, reiterating the need to strengthen international talent exchange. Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly sought to assure overseas researchers that China is a better place for their work. Beijing pledged to beef up its push to lure talent back to China despite tight Covid-19 restrictions that have mostly sealed the country off from the rest of the world.

Foreign-born designers and engineers, along with Chinese people with foreign passports or residency, have long played an instrumental role in the nation’s technological development. In consumer electronics, Huawei Technologies Co. accelerated its efforts to catch up to the iPhone by hiring a former Apple Inc. creative director, Abigail Brody, as its chief designer in 2015. The company also recruited internationally to build up its in-house chip and audio engineering and 5G wireless technology.

Six of the seven key research and development executives of China’s leading semiconductor equipment maker Piotech Inc. are American citizens, per its Star Markets filing in early 2022. Many of Piotech’s top management, including its chairman and general manager, are also Americans.

Previously, US measures to rein in China’s ascent have focused on a particular technology -- such as banning Huawei from accessing advanced chipmaking by the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. -- but the new personnel restriction will hurt by depriving China of a deep pool of experience obtained in the US.

“The control on ‘US person’ is the biggest surprise to us from the announcement,” Bernstein analysts including Stacy Rasgon wrote in response to Washington’s move. “Some Chinese companies have been progressing better, often thanks to founding members or executives bringing their experience from years of working in the US. Many of them hence are US citizens or green card holders.”

Anyone falling under the classification will require a license to continue working in China or in support of chipmakers there, with a heavy burden of proof to show that their work wouldn’t go toward military end uses. Given the variety of applications for any given semiconductor, that makes it challenging for US persons to demonstrate they wouldn’t be aiding China’s military, Bernstein said.

What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

Chinese companies still concentrate on the assembly and testing segments of the industry’s global supply chain, missing out from the 90% of total chain value that’s in the design and manufacturing segments dominated by the US. Non-tariff barriers are the largest obstacle to the rise of the Chinese semiconductor industry.

        -- Clelia Imperiali, BI analyst

Companies like Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV have now prohibited American staff from supporting Chinese customers, dashing hopes in Beijing that international chip industry players would remain neutral. Meanwhile, Beijing-based semiconductor equipment maker Naura Technology Group Co. has told its US employees in China to withdraw from component and machinery development to comply with Washington’s restrictions, South China Morning Post reported.

“We scoped our measures narrowly,” US Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Thea D. Rozman Kendler told an audience on a public call on Thursday. “That ensures that our actions will have the least possible impact on commercial activity and not cause disruptions to the global supply chain.”

Citi analysts said in a note about the new set of US rules this week that Naura and fellow domestic chipmaking gear provider Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. “both believe that even though it applies to their staffs with US citizenship or Green Cards, those staffs should still be allowed to participate in the development or production of mature-node ICs.”

Still, the US curbs are a roadblock for China’s bid to achieve technological self-sufficiency. The measures not only cut the country’s access to advanced chips used in supercomputers and artificial intelligence research, such as those provided by Nvidia Corp., but also impede the arrival of researchers and engineers capable of designing such systems within its borders.

Translation

（彭博社）- 中國國家主席習近平周日在共產黨每十年有兩次的全國代表大會上承諾，中國將加快培養人才隊伍並打贏自主技術開發的戰鬥。但美國在一周前發布的新限制措施已經削弱了這些計劃。

拜登政府最新的制裁措施包括限制所謂的美國人在中國的一些芯片工廠裡支援開發、生產或應用集成電路。從 10 月 12 日起，這些措施的範圍足夠廣泛地涵蓋了美國綠卡持有者, 以及美國居民和美國公民，覆蓋了中國半導體公司的大量高級管理人員。

習近平說，國家將 “吸引各領域最優秀人才投身黨和人民事業” ，並重申加強國際人才交流的必要性。中國高級官員一再試圖向海外研究人員保證，中國是他們工作的更好地方。儘管Covid-19的嚴格限制已使該國與世界其他地區隔絕，但北京仍承諾加大力度吸引人才返回中國。

外國出生的設計師和工程師，以及持有外國護照或居留權的中國人，長期以來一直在國家技術發展中發揮著重要作用。在消費電子領域，華為技術有限公司在 2015 年聘請了前蘋果公司創意總監Abigail Brody 擔任其首席設計師，加快了追上 iPhone 的步伐。該公司還從國際範圍內招聘來構建其內部芯片和音頻工程和 5G 無線技術。

根據 2022 年初提交給科創板的文件，中國領先的半導體設備製造商 Piotech Inc. 的七名主要研發高管中有六位是美國公民。Piotech 的許多高層管理人員，包括其董事長和總經理，也是美國人。

此前，美國遏制中國崛起的措施主要集中在一項特定技術上 - 例如禁止華為進入台積電等公司的先進芯片製造領域 - 新的人員限制將剝奪中國得到美國獲得的豐富經驗。

包括 Stacy Rasgon 在內的 Bernstein analysts 在回應華盛頓的舉動時寫道： “對 ‘美國人’ 的控制是該公告給我們帶來最大的震驚” 。 “一些中國公司取得了較好的進展，這通常要歸功於創始成員或高管帶來了他們在美國工作多年的經驗。因此，他們中的許多人是美國公民或綠卡持有者。”

任何屬於該類別的人都需要獲得許可才能繼續在中國工作或支持那裡的芯片製造商，並有沉重的舉證責任, 去證明他們的工作不會用於軍事最終用途。Bernstein說，鑑於任何半導體都有各種各樣的應用，這使得美國人很難證明他們不會幫助中國的軍隊。

彭博情報說什麼

中國企業仍然專注於行業全球供應鏈的組裝和測試環節，錯過了由美國主導的設計和製造環節中總價值鏈的90%。由非關稅產生的壁壘是中國半導體產業崛起的最大障礙。

——Clelia Imperiali，BI 分析師

荷蘭芯片設備製造商 ASML Holding NV 等公司現已禁止美國員工支援中國客戶，這讓北京方面希望國際芯片行業參與者保持中立的希望破滅。與此同時，據《南華早報》報導，總部位於北京的半導體設備製造商 Naura Technology Group Co. 已告知其在中國的美國員工退出組件和機械開發，以遵守華盛頓的限制。

“我們的措施範圍很窄”, 美國商務部出口管理助理部長 Thea D. Rozman Kendler 在周四的公開電話會議上對聽眾說。 “這確保我們的行動將對商業活動產生最小的影響，並且不會對全球供應鏈造成干擾。”

花旗分析師本週在一份關於美國新規則的報告中表示，Naura 和國內芯片製造設備供應商 Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. “都認為，即使它適用於擁有美國公民身份或綠卡的員工，這些員工仍應允許參與成熟節點 IC 的開發或生產” 。

儘管如此，美國的限制措施仍是中國實現技術自給自足的障礙。這些措施不僅切斷了該國獲得用於超級計算機和人工智能研究的先進芯片的機會，例如Nvidia Corp提供的芯片，也阻礙能夠在其境內設計此類系統的研究人員同工程師的到來。

       So, The Biden administration’s latest salvo of sanctions that aims at China includes restrictions on so-called American people supporting the development of integrated circuits in China. The measures are broad enough to encompass holders of US green cards as well as US residents and American citizens. The competition between the two countries on computer chips is intensifying.

Note

1. Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market (上海證券交易所科創板)（Sci-Tech innovAtion boaRd，in short STAR Market, in short in Chinese 科創板) officially known as the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board is a Chinese science and technology focused equities market established on July 22, 2019. STAR Market has been touted as Shanghai's equivalent to America’s Nasdaq, with state media alluding to its goal as giving Chinese science and technology companies greater access to capital markets. As of July 2020, it is valued at more than US $400 billion. (Wikipedia)

2. Bernstein analysists are widely recognized as Wall Street's premier sell-side research and brokerage people; it is supposed that they could deliver trusted research and execution that help clients stay ahead of what's next.

3. Mature nodes are generally defined at 40nm and above and require older manufacturing processes. Larger nodes are often suitable because of their specific features, such as fast switching. The automotive industry is a large consumer of such components such as LCD drivers and power management controllers. (https://www.z2data.com/insights/chip-shortages-and-technology-)