The specific nature of the U.S. export control legislation is that the authorities may prohibit third countries from cooperating with unwanted counterparties, and in the case of new sanctions against China, American partners may again draw Taiwan into orbit, and the island has already expressed its willingness to contribute to meeting the new U.S. requirements.
U.S. lawmakers have completed a week-long new package of sanctions against the PRC. It limits the supply to China of components for supercomputers of certain productivity, equipment for the production of a range of microschemes, and components for the production of such equipment. 31 Chinese companies with questionable reputation have been placed on the list of counterparties, which the U.S. suspects use of technology and products of American origin for the Chinese defense industry. Companies are given 60 days to undergo an audit by American inspectors, and if the latter are not allowed to enter their interested industrial facilities, the company will be finally placed on the sanctions list.
Some market participants now express concern that the performance criterion for supercomputers may limit the activities of large Chinese civil-sector companies, Alibaba and ByteDance, for example. The latter is the owner of a world-wide popular TikTok service, creating server systems that are capable of approaching "sanctions." In fact, the U.S. authorities want to prevent the emergence of supercomputers in China that are capable of producing more than 100 petaflops computing power at less than 1,178 cubic metres. On the one hand, many civil-purpose systems that will be established in China in the next couple of years will be subject to this criterion. On the other hand, designers will have the incentive to show flexibility in the design of such systems. For example, the system can be broken down into a few smaller nodes, which will be divided into territorially, but will be communicated through a fast-track optical interface.
In solidarity with the U.S. authorities, Taiwan's Ministry of Economy has demonstrated its willingness to comply with the law of those countries that host foreign customers' headquarters working with Taiwan companies. According to Taiwanese officials, it is very important to comply with the law. TSMC and UMC remain the largest contract producers of semiconductor components in Taiwan, but they are not yet in a position to make personal statements on the subject because they are preparing to publish quarterly reports. However, the example of US sanctions against Huavei under President Donald Trump will go to the United States to meet with major customers of Taiwanese companies and discuss, among other things, the impact of geopolitical processes on business.