US seeks tighter clamp after Huawei jolt

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said reports of a chip breakthrough by Huawei Technologies are "incredibly disturbing" and emphasized that her department needs more ways to enforce its export-control regime.

"We need different tools," she told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. "We need additional resources around enforcement."

Raimondo pointed to a stalled legislative proposal that would expand her department's authority over technology transactions that are found to pose national security risks, as well as an alternative framework to mitigate risk in the tech supply chain proposed by Senator Maria Cantwell.

Raimondo said last month that she sees no evidence China can develop advanced 7-nanometer chips at scale, but she's still facing intense pressure from Republicans in Congress to tighten controls - and quickly.

Meanwhile, Taiwan will investigate whether Taiwanese firms helping Huawei with chipmaking plants in China violated US sanctions.

Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua told lawmakers her agency has agreed to launch a probe into that unusual relationship. She was responding to a request by ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Lai Jui-lung during a legislative session identifying four firms working on chip plants backed by Huawei in China.