Challenging China on Chips

After promising a less polarizing stance on China, Biden is forcing friends to pick sides

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Coming into office, President Joe Biden pledged to abandon Donald Trump’s with-us-or-against-us approach to China. But sweeping new curbs on the sale of semiconductors and chipmaking equipment to the country are riling Beijing while making key US allies choose sides.

The export controls require American chip companies to get a Department of Commerce license to sell certain advanced products in China. Since early October, US officials have repeatedly said that if allies don’t align with Washington on the latest rules, they might face a ban on sales of foreign chip equipment that contains even a small amount of American technology. Despite the relatively friendly tone of Biden’s Nov. 14 meeting in Indonesia with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the chip curbs show that the White House still wants to slow China’s progress in cutting-edge technologies.