Texas Intruments displays its integrated circuits products at the 5th CIIE. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By Gong Qian

The U.S. has been steadily tightening its grip on China's technological advance, especially in the semi-conductor industry. The latest move, announced by the Biden administration earlier in October, was to prohibit the delivery of high-end semiconductor and chip-making equipment to China.

Under such circumstances, some U.S. chip and semiconductor giants, including AMD, Qualcomm, Intel, Texas Instruments (TI) and Lam Research, still participated in the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE), held from November 5 to 10 in Shanghai. They expressed strong confidence in China's market.

The U.S. should hold a more objective and rational attitude toward the fact that these companies are benefiting from China's policy and development. The move of forcing them to cut ties with China is harming their interests, which in turn damages the U.S. interest.

Hou Mingjuan, vice president of Qualcomm said that the company sees China not just as a market, but as an opportunity to build strong partnerships. Her words are echoed by her colleague, Meng Pu, the chairman of Qualcomm China. "Qualcomm has been increasing its investment in China in the past five years," Meng told Yicai Global.

"China's improving business environment is boosting foreign enterprises' confidence in operations in the country," said Meng. In the past five years, Qualcomm has annually increased its number of employees in China by at least 20 percent. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese startups that have received Qualcomm Venture's investment has increased about 70 percent to near 90, Meng added.

Meng said the company has participated in CIIE for five consecutive years, adding that thanks to CIIE, Qualcomm has expanded its cooperation with Chinese counterparts in different sectors, ranging from mobile phones, autos and Internet of Things, to artificial intelligence and extended reality.

Apart from Qualcomm, other U.S. leading chip companies are also taking actions to expand investment in China.

At this year's CIIE, TI announced the installation of equipment inside its second assembly and test factory in Chengdu, CDAT2, to prepare for future production. The factory is expected to become operational in the next few months. In addition, it also announced an expansion and automation update for its Shanghai product distribution center.

This demonstrated the company's belief to deeply invest in China and serve customers, said Jiang Han, vice president of TI and president of TI China.

"Over the past 10 years, China's worldwide semiconductor market share has nearly doubled from four to seven percent ... Now, China is the world's largest consumer of electronics and the largest market for the world's chip makers," said John Neuffer, President and CEO of SIA, in a video speech at the opening of 2022 World Conference on Integrated Circuits on November 17.

China's semiconductor sales totalled 192.5 billion USD last year, up 27.1 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA). Its imports of ICs amounted to 432 billion USD in 2021, a 23.6 percent increase from the previous year, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs of China in January.

On the other hand, China has been implementing proactive polices to improve the business environment for foreign investment. China released the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment (2022 Version) on October 28, just days after the conclusion of the 20th CPC National Congress. It will come into force on January 1, 2023. This demonstrates China's firm standing on its opening-up policy, a key statement emphasized during the 20th CPC National Congress.

Global industry cooperation has been essential to build the complex and sophisticated semiconductor ecosystem, and this level of global industry cooperation is more important than ever, given the unique and formidable challenges facing our industry, said Neuffer.