Construction of the world’s largest pulse power plant is underway, and one engineer predicts China could achieve fusion power by his 2028. China is also funding hypersonic civil transport. But its achievements have been more modest in terms of practical technological advances in today’s economy. This is most noticeable for semiconductors. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) made headlines in July when researchers announced that China’s largest chip maker had acquired the ability to manufacture his 7-nanometer chips.
The conference concluded, “We must focus on research and development of key technologies with first-mover advantage and cutting-edge technologies that will serve as a foundation to lead future developments.” Attempts to develop cutting-edge technology and leapfrog the market have always been a major challenge. But US sanctions and a slowing economy are making that effort even more difficult. There were some impressive wins on paper. Baidu unveiled a quantum computer that consumers can access via a smartphone app.
However, US sanctions do not allow us to purchase the state-of-the-art equipment used to manufacture these types of chips, so it is likely that we were using older technology, and in order to scale up. There are no signs that it can be scaled up. There are signs that Beijing is growing impatient with the pace of development of the semiconductor industry. In August, she launched a corruption probe into six executives of the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, China’s largest semiconductor fund.
China’s continued reliance on foreign technology has become more apparent in recent months. The China Semiconductor Industry Association has complained about the “hostile” environment created by the US Chip Science Act, which it says will cause the US semiconductor industry to inject about $53 billion to expand domestic production. Adding salt to the wound is a 10-year ban on beneficiaries of the new law from building advanced factories in China.
The war over chips also affects other strategically considered industries. This was last seen in artificial intelligence (AI), which relies heavily on advanced Nvidia GPUs for machine learning. The domestic AI industry was rocked when the US banned Nvidia from selling its powerful A100 and H100 chips to China.