ALBAWABA - China does not want a trade or tech war but will definitely respond if the United States (US) imposes more curbs on its chip sector, China's ambassador to Washington said Wednesday.
Addressing the Aspen Security Forum, Ambassador Xie Feng said China did not shy away from competition. But the way it was defined by the United States was not fair.
He highlighted existing US prohibitions on Chinese imports of equipment to make advanced chips.
"This is like ... restricting the other side to wear outdated swimwear in a swimming contest, while you yourself (are) wearing a Speedo," he said.
Xie referred to reports that Washington is considering an outbound investment review mechanism, and further prohibition on the export of AI chips to China, as reported by Reuters.
Notably, some of China's tech companies are reportedly now able to manufacture 5G microchips.
China's Huawei back to making 5G phones
"The Chinese government cannot simply sit idly by. There's a Chinese saying that we will not ... make provocations, but we will not flinch from provocations," he said.
"China, definitely ... will make our response. But definitely it's not our hope to have a tit for tat. We don't want ... a trade war, technological war, we want to say goodbye to the Iron Curtain as well as the Silicon Curtain."
The latest China response to US trade and tech war restrictions was to restrict the export of locally extracted metals used in chip manufacturing.
US outraged by China chip metal export controls
The current US administration has been working on an executive order that would restrict certain investments in China in several sectors, including semiconductors, quantum computing, and AI.
An unnamed Reuters source said it was supposed to be done by Labor day.
In a previous response to a US escalation of the ongoing trade and tech war between the two countries, China targeted US chip maker Micron Technology.
The Cybersecurity Administration of China said in May that Micron failed its security review and barred operators of key domestic infrastructure from purchasing its products.
