Chip and neodymium magnet war. Both sides escalated to their strengths almost immediately.
From Asia Financial, July 18:
Beijing says it hopes the US ‘can correct ‘wrong’ practices’ on chip trade following an announcement from Nvidia chief Jensen Huang that would start selling H20 chips to China again
China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao called for a ‘return to normal’ in trade ties with the United States on Friday amid a likely thawing of a three-year-long chip war with Washington.
“We will continue to strengthen dialogue and communication, deepen consensus, reduce misunderstandings, enhance cooperation, to jointly put China-US economic and trade relations back on track to achieve healthy, stable and sustainable development,” Wang told reporters, adding that he wanted ties with the US to return to a stable footing.
The “ups and downs” in the relationship between the US and China underscored their economic interdependence, he added.
China’s softening tone on the trade war follows an announcement by Nvidia chief Jensen Huang earlier this week that the Donald Trump government had agreed to approve licences needed for the chipmaker to start selling its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China again.
Washington had put a halt on the exports of those chips in late April. Huang’s statements from this week point to a significant reversal in policy — a first in America’s three-year-long export control push.
While Trump or the White House are yet to make any official statement on the policy change, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that H20 sales were part of negotiations on China’s ongoing blockade of rare earths.
Meanwhile, China has welcomed the resumption of H20 sales, with the Commerce ministry saying on Friday that it hopes the US “can correct ‘wrong’ practices”. It also said it hoped that the US could “work with China,” so that the two countries “meet each other halfway”.
Earlier on Thursday, Commerce minister Wang also met with Nvidia’s Huang and told him that he hoped multinational companies, including Nvidia, would provide high-quality and reliable products and services to Chinese customers.
Huang said the Chinese market was very attractive, and Nvidia was willing to deepen cooperation with Chinese partners in the field of artificial intelligence, according to a Commerce ministry statement released on Friday.
‘China is open’
Wang also told Huang that China’s policy of attracting foreign investment would not change and the door to openness would only open wider.This is Huang’s third visit to China this year, during which he has also met with the country’s Vice Premier He Lifeng and the chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Ren Hongbin....
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