China’s two biggest telecom and chipmaking companies thumbed their noses at the United States on the day of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China. They released a new Huawei smartphone with 7-nanometer technology that flies in the face of international sanctions on exporting the tech to China.
Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro has a 5G-capable Kirin 9000s microchip produced by China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC)—most likely using U.S. technology banned by the Commerce Department for use in China.
The phone release is a snub of Ms. Raimondo just as she joined a long line of Biden administration officials trying to stabilize U.S.-China relations through a flurry of visits to Beijing.
Last year’s export controls against Huawei and SMIC attempted to limit China’s production of computer chips to the outdated 14-nm level, which is about eight years behind the most advanced chips now produced in the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands.
According to Bloomberg, which commissioned a teardown of the Mate 60 Pro to discover which semiconductor it used, the phone’s production “raises questions about SMIC’s compliance with US rules stipulating that any company intending to supply Huawei using American technology—which is present throughout SMIC’s operations—must obtain Washington’s approval.”
The teardown, conducted by TechInsights, revealed that Huawei and SMIC produced the phone’s chip using 7 nm technology, a first for China. Bloomberg noted that the phone is “a sign Beijing is making early progress in a nationwide push to circumvent US efforts to contain its ascent.”
Huawei kept mum on the phone’s key technical specs, including the phone’s processor and connection speed, leading to questions about whether it is hiding banned U.S. tech.
TechInsights reports that the Kirin 9000s’ 7 nm chip is only about five years behind the United States.
The company’s vice chair told Bloomberg that “SMIC’s technology advances are on an accelerated trajectory, and appear to have addressed yield-impacting issues in their 7nm technology.”
By Anders Corr
