Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

Recently, a bipartisan group of US senators co-signed a letter to Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, pressuring the company to abandon any efforts to buy memory chips from Chinese semiconductor suppliers ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC). They decline to grant the "green light" even for products destined for the Chinese market. The accusation is both trite and absurd: They claim that chips manufactured in China pose a "national security risk" to the US.

In fact, while the US Department of War has included these two companies on its "list of Chinese military-linked enterprises," it has never been able to produce a shred of public evidence to support this claim. The fact that US senators are using a unilateral, discriminatory list to unjustly suppress Chinese companies is, at its core, political manipulation.

What exactly are these politicians pushing so hard for? The answer lies in the signatories of the joint letter. The letter was spearheaded by prominent US hawks on China: Republican Senator Jim Banks and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who represent Indiana and New York, respectively. These two states happen to be the key hubs for SK hynix and Micron's US expansion plans. These politicians fear that if more cost-competitive Chinese memory chips enter Apple's supply chain, they will erode the market share of US and South Korean chipmakers, thereby affecting their electoral base in home states - and that is the real "Achilles' heel" for these senators.

Clearly, these senators are not serving "US national security," but rather the financial interests of their constituents' donors. In fact, Apple has long wanted to purchase Chinese memory chips. The global memory chip industry has long been dominated by three players: Micron of the US, Samsung and SK hynix of South Korea. Amid the AI boom, with memory chip supply tight and prices soaring, choosing Chinese products is a natural move. The senators' vested interests are hard to hide. This is essentially a commercial robbery carried out under the guise of "national security."

At the end of the day, using political pressure to brutally interfere with corporate procurement undermines the "free market" that the US itself champions. It denies US companies access to the best supply chains, weakens their global edge, and ordinary consumers, Americans included, will end up paying the price.