The US recently tightened chip exports to China, and in fact there have been several entities that have been blacklisted since 1997, for example bodies in China developing nuclear weapons, such as the China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP).
CAEP is one of the agencies belonging to the Chinese government which is blacklisted by the US government because it is considered to be conducting research and development on nuclear weapons. As a result, the agency is prohibited from buying technology from the US, including chips.
However, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), CAEP can still purchase various PC components made by companies from the US. The report says that since 2020 CAEP has been able to purchase these components at least 12 times, including Intel Xeon Gold processors and Nvidia RTX graphics cards, for use on computers at the institute.
Of course this purchase was not made directly to Nvidia and Intel. CAEP buys these components from Chinese marketplaces such as Taobao, Aliexpress, and so on.
The WSJ, who had access to CAEP papers, said there were at least 34 references to the use of US chips in their research over the past decade. The chip is used to research various things, including models of nuclear explosions.
The findings highlight the difficulty of imposing a chip embargo on China, even if its chipmaker does not deal directly with blacklisted entities.
"It's very difficult to enforce US restrictions especially when they involve overseas transactions," said Kevin Wolf, a former US Department of Commerce official, as quoted by us from Techspot, Tuesday (31/1/2023).
The US Defense Ministry says China has accelerated its development of nuclear weapons in recent years. Currently they are said to have 400 nuclear warheads, and the number is expected to reach 1500 in 2023 if not inhibited.
For this reason, the US government recently partnered with the Dutch and Japanese governments to impose a chip embargo on China. This sanction not only prohibits the sale of chips, but also prohibits the sale or use of the technology used to make chips, making it difficult for the Chinese government to manufacture its own chips.