Senators Ask Commerce to Place Chinese Chip Company on Entity List

The Commerce Department should add China’s Yangtze Memory Technologies Company to the Entity List because it has “clear ties” to the Chinese military and is helping the country gain ground in the semiconductor industry, two Republican senators told Commerce. Sens. Michael McCaul of Texas and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said the chip company also should be subject to the foreign direct product rule, which would restrict the company’s ability to import certain foreign-made semiconductor equipment that is built with or that incorporates U.S. technology. “With no [Chinese] firm or alternative foreign provider capable of providing YMTC with comparable equipment and software -- including high aperture etching tools, metrology and inspection tools, and cleaning systems -- a unilateral control” by the U.S. would “significantly hinder YMTC’s ability to implement a [Chinese] industrial plan designed to weaken U.S. national and economic security and increase its reliance on” China, the senators said in a July 12 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.