New US chip curbs aimed at China

Agencies

The United States plans to unveil more regulations aimed at keeping advanced chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and other producers from flowing to China, part of a flurry of measures introduced by the Biden administration during its final days in office.

The latest measures would seek to encourage chip producers like TSMC, Samsung Electronics and Intel to more carefully scrutinize customers and increase due diligence, according to people familiar with the matter.

The changes follow an incident where TSMC-made chips were secretly diverted to the blacklisted Chinese company Huawei Technologies.

The rules, which could be unveiled as soon as today, would build on global semiconductor restrictions that the Biden administration published on Monday. Those curbs limit the sale of AI chips by the likes of Nvidia and other advanced makers to data centers in most countries.

The Biden administration has also banned imports from another tranche of Chinese companies over alleged human-rights abuses involving the Uyghurs, targeting 37 textile, mining and solar companies, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.

The companies include Huafu Fashion Co., one of the world's largest textile manufacturers, and 25 of its subsidiaries, which the US has linked to forced-labor practices in China's cotton industry.

The companies were added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, which restricts the import of goods tied to what the US describes as China's human-rights abuses and ongoing genocide in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.