China US Photo:IC

As an updated rule curbing exports of US chipmaking equipment to China is reportedly in the final stages of review, Chinese experts said on Friday that the US should show sincerity to improve its relations with China and abandon its two-faced approach, as its one-year technology restrictions on China turn out to have limited effects.

According to a report by Reuters on Friday, US officials had warned China in recent weeks to anticipate that rules that restrict shipments of semiconductor equipment and advanced artificial intelligence chips to China are to be updated this month. The updates would add restrictions and close loopholes in rules first unveiled on October 7, 2022, sources said.

The policy coincides with the one-year anniversary of the US government's escalating crackdown on China's chip industry, and it came after Chinese technology giant Huawei defied US sanctions with the official launching of its Huawei Mate 60 series and other high-end products.  

"The US restrictions have proved limited, as in the past few years, the containment instead inspired our country to solve bottleneck issues in some of the relevant areas and accelerate the pace of self-reliance," Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.

Wang noted that the impact of further US sanctions on China's related industries is anticipated to be futile, as China will gradually realize the localization of these products.

Reports of an advanced chip in Huawei Technologies' newest smartphone are "incredibly disturbing," US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, according to a report by Fortune on Friday. Earlier, the US government started an official investigation into an advanced made-in-China chip housed within Huawei Technologies' latest smartphone.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, expressed the country's firm opposition to a reported investigation by the US into advanced Chinese chips, noting that sanctions, containment and crackdowns will not stop China's development, but will only strengthen China's determination and ability to be self-reliant and technologically innovative.

"The release of Huawei's [latest] phone has caused some irritation in the US, and the further intensification of the crackdown on China reinforces the ineffectiveness of the previous [US] policy," Ma Jihua, a Beijing-based senior industry analyst, told the Global Times on Friday.

No matter how strict the policy adopted by the US against China is, it will not achieve the expected results, because the chip industry chain is a product of globalization and will not be manipulated by the US side, Ma noted.

During the past few years, especially since the Biden administration took office, the US has been adopting a two-faced approach toward China. On the one hand, it has expressed opposition to "decoupling," on the other hand, its actions show that it is constantly "decoupling" from China with various sanctions, Ma noted.

Wang said that the US will have an election in 2024, and in this context, the Biden administration needs to further ease the relationship with China to better control their differences.

"However, although the US wants to thaw relations with China, before every negotiation, it will introduce correspondingly tighter policies to raise its bargaining chips," Ma said.

There is still a long way to go to stabilize and improve relations between the world's two largest economies, and the key is to follow the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation so as to find a correct way for both sides to get along in the new era, Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng said on September 28, according to a post on the website of the Chinese Embassy in the US on Wednesday.