Big Business, Trade Groups Call on Obama to Confront China on ICT Barriers
The Chinese government has “increasingly pursued policies” to obstruct U.S. industry access to the Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) sector over the past nine months, said 19 of the highest profile U.S. business and trade groups in a recent…
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letter to President Barack Obama (here). Those groups, which include the Consumer Electronics Association, the Semiconductor Industry Association and others, urged Obama to pressure Chinese President Xi Jinping to ease those barriers during a bilateral September summit in Washington. Chinese national security policy, as well as other motivations, have led to “a new program to acquire or indigenize U.S. semiconductor technology,” “new restrictions on cross-border data flows” and several other restrictive measures, said the Aug. 11 letter. “The United States and China should reaffirm their commitment to open markets, particularly in the ICT sector, recognizing the significant benefits that both countries enjoy from integration into global ICT industry value chains,” the groups said, while calling for other ways to strengthen cooperation among the two countries. The letter said China adopted the restrictive measures since Jinping's last visit to Washington in November 2014.