WASHINGTON, DC – As first reported by Reuters, Chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, today sent a letter to Secretary Gina Raimondo urging the Administration to tighten export controls first announced on October 7, 2022 that restricted advanced semiconductors and equipment from being exported to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The lawmakers cite concern that PRC technology firms have identified workarounds to evade the export control rules, allowing the PRC and People’s Liberation Army continued, legal access to advanced semiconductors that can efficiently train artificial intelligence models.
In part, the lawmakers wrote, “This landmark rule marked a critical step to ensuring U.S. technological leadership and that the U.S. military maintains a technological edge over the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party…In this vein, we urge you to even further strengthen the October 7, 2022 rule so that advanced U.S. technology and expertise related to advanced computing and semiconductors are not used against the United States.”
To protect U.S. economic and national security, the lawmakers requested:
- In tandem with consideration of other relevant parameters, the advanced computer rule threshold for the bidirectional transfer rate of 600 Gbyte/s to be lowered sufficiently to prevent clever engineering that bypasses the regulations set on October 7.
- The Administration consider measures to ensure cloud computing services are not used by Chinese firms to simply outsource their advanced computing needs.
“If we want to win the long-term competition with the Chinese Communist Party, it makes no sense to immediately ship our breakthroughs in critical technologies over to China. Our export controls must keep pace with our rapid innovation. The October 7, 2022 export controls were a great first step but should now be strengthened to prevent clever PRC engineering, or creative K Street lawyering, from undermining the intended effects of these rules,” said Chairman Mike Gallagher.
“The October 7th rule was an important step to ensure we are not fueling CCP military advancement and authoritarian actions. Moving forward, we need to make sure that any loopholes are closed so these common-sense, bipartisan actions can be successful. I look forward to continue working with Chairman Gallagher to support the Biden Administration’s efforts to maintain our competitiveness and ensure American innovation is not used for the CCP’s malign purposes,” said Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Click HERE to read the full letter or read the text below.
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Dear Secretary Raimondo:
As the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, we are writing to ask for the tightening of the October 7, 2022, rules on “Implementation of Additional Export Controls: Certain Advanced Computing and Semiconductor Manufacturing Items; Supercomputer and Semiconductor End Use; Entity List Modification.” This landmark rule marked a critical step to ensuring U.S. technological leadership and that the U.S. military maintains a technological edge over the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party.
However, since the rule was published, PRC technology firms and other multinational entities have identified workarounds for the export control rules, allowing the PRC continued, legal access to advanced semiconductors that can efficiently train artificial intelligence models. For example, in tandem with consideration of other relevant parameters, the advanced computer rule threshold for the bidirectional transfer rate of 600 Gbyte/s should be lowered sufficiently to prevent clever engineering that bypasses the regulations set on October 7, 2022. We should also closely consider measures to ensure cloud computing services are not used by PRC firms to simply outsource their advanced computing needs. These matters are complicated, and we look forward to working with the Administration to update them as new information comes to light.
In this vein, we urge you to even further strengthen the October 7, 2022, rules so that advanced U.S. technology and expertise related to advanced computing and semiconductors are not used against the United States. Updating the October 7 rule and safeguarding U.S. leadership in the critical semiconductor sector would mark a critical and continued step to that end.
Thank you for your work on these issues, and we look forward to engaging with you to protect our nation’s interests, economic security, and national security
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