The United States will not ‘tolerate’ China’s ban on the use of Micron chips to a large extent, according to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. She argues that the US will crack down on such ‘economic coercion’.
Raimondo claims that China is targeting a single US company ‘without factual basis’, writes Bloomberg. “We simply see it as economic coercion and we will not tolerate that. Nor do we think it will turn out to be successful.” The country will now decide what follow-up steps will be taken, the Minister of Economic Affairs said. Earlier this week a US legislator, Mike Gallagher, proposed imposing trade restrictions on ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese manufacturer of memory chips. However, Raimondo did not want to respond to that proposal.
A week ago China banned the use of Micron chips by operators of ‘critical Chinese infrastructure’. This may include the telecom sector and financial institutions such as state banks. The country claims that products from the American memory chipmaker do not meet its security assessment and would pose “serious risks” to network security. China does not say exactly which Micron products the ban applies to.
