US takes game of anti-China whack-a-mole to another levelUS takes game of anti-China whack-a-mole to another level

“Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released two rules: one that updates export controls on advanced computing semiconductors, and another that places additional entities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Singapore on the Entity List,” announced the frantically busy agency.

The usual litany of bureaucrats felt the need to inflict their canned quotes on the rest of us and, hilariously, all insisted on adding their middle initials too, as if to bestow their words with even greater authority and hauteur. The least generic and superficial of them was provided by Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan F. (Fred? Faustino? Fabulous? Nobody seems to know) Estevez.

“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to preventing the misuse of advanced U.S. technology and curbing the national security concerns raised by the PRC’s military-civil fusion,” he said. “By enhancing due diligence requirements, we are holding foundries accountable for verifying that their chips are not being diverted to restricted entities.”

But what does that mean? In a presumably inadvertent concession of the futility of this ongoing game of sanction whack-a-mole, the BIS release goes on to say “Today’s rules reinforce and build on the October 7, 2022, October 17, 2023, and December 2, 2024, controls to restrict the PRC’s ability to obtain certain high-end chips critical for military advantage.”

We can probably trace this latest initiative back to 2023, when Huawei kept launching products containing chips the existing US sanctions were supposed to prevent it from having. Cue howls of outrage and frantic ass-covering as the US state tried to explain why its cunning plans kept being thwarted. It turns out the US doesn’t directly control every part of the semiconductor ecosystem, you see, so further proclamations were required to demand the likes of ASML and TSMC play ball, or else.

In practice this means a bunch of extra bureaucracy through which anyone who wants to do silicon business has to get approval from the US before they're allowed, including ‘authorised' integrated circuit designers. A bunch more companies have also been added to America’s swollen ‘entity list’, including Sophgo, which is suspected of being involved in helping Huawei circumvent chip restrictions.

“As these actions demonstrate, the Entity List is a powerful tool that can be used to shape behaviour that advances U.S. national security and global cooperation,” added the F-meister. “With these entity list additions and removals, we have sent a clear message that there are consequences for supporting the PRC’s military modernization, and alternatively, incentives for working with the U.S. to further shared foreign policy goals and stronger bilateral relationships.”

That message was first sent years ago and you have to love the sinister use of terms like ‘cooperation’ and ‘incentives’ to euphemise America’s geopolitical bullying. And on that note, the crusade against social media giant TikTok is also facing challenges, as US politicians start to fully grapple with the consequences of banning a service that over half of the country likes to use.

A few politicians, only one of which shared their middle initial, introduced a new bill this week called the ‘Extend the TikTok Deadline Act’. There’s already a law dictating that if TikTok isn’t sold to some crony of the US state by this Sunday it will be banned. TikTok has clearly called the bluff of this ridiculous law, which puts politicians in a tricky spot.

“The TikTok ban was rushed through without sufficient consideration of the profound consequences it would have on the 170 million Americans who use the platform,” said Senator Edward J. (hopefully something more fun than John or James) Markey. “The Extend the TikTok Deadline Act is a straightforward, one-sentence bill designed to give Congress the time needed to fully assess the implications of this ban. I urge my colleagues to act swiftly on this legislation.”

“The rushed divestment of TikTok is a huge giveaway to Donald Trump and his cronies, who are poised to scoop up a massive social media company and turn it into another partisan mouthpiece,” said Senator Ron Wyden. "Extending the deadline to sell TikTok will allow Congress to consider better ways to mitigate threats from China, courts to review the law, and additional bidders to make proposals to acquire TikTok with more time for public scrutiny.”

Of course, it’s all Trump’s fault, even though he hasn’t been in power for four years. The crony reference was presumably in response to reports that Elon Musk is thinking of buying TikTok, which is certainly plausible. Trump does take over the day after the deadline, however, and there are signs he’s not so keen on this ban, so maybe we’ll get to see the spectacle of TikTok being banned for one day before Trump turns it back on.

That would do a better job of illustrating the folly of US attempts to micromanage the world better than we ever could. China will likely find other ways to get hold of foreign semiconductor kit, while at the same time having all the incentive it needs to subsidise the likes of Huawei in their quest to become technologically autonomous. Maybe Trump will have a more coherent China strategy but we’re not holding our breath.