President Joe Biden is greenlighting South Korean and Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturers to continue expanding their operations in China thanks to exemptions rewarded to various companies by the administration.
Late last year, the Biden administration issued prohibitions on semiconductor chip exports to China, among other tech exports. The rules were designed to cut off exports of chips to China, which the communist country is reliant on, by United States companies and multinational corporations that use U.S. technology.
One-year exemptions, though, were given to some manufacturers — including Samsung, Taiwan Semiconductor, and SK Hynix — which allowed them to continue expanding semiconductor operations throughout China.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Biden officials have confirmed to industry insiders that those exemptions, set to expire in a few months, will be extended so as to ensure that semiconductor manufacturers can keep growing chip production in China.
The Journal reported:
Those exemptions were set to expire in October. Estevez told a meeting of the Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group, that the exemptions would be renewed for the foreseeable future, according to the attendees. The Commerce Department declined to comment. [Emphasis added]
…
The move to extend the exemptions, rather than winding them down, amounts to a recognition by U.S. authorities that efforts to isolate China from high-tech goods are more difficult than anticipated in a highly integrated global industry, according to industry executives. It also comes as some foreign businesses bristle at Washington’s expanding interference in their operations.
[Emphasis added]
The extension of rule exemptions for some multinational corporations comes as Biden, as well as his top agency officials, has made clear that his administration is not interested in decoupling from China.
“We’re not looking to decouple from China, we’re looking to de-risk and diversify our relationship with China,” Biden said last month at the G7 Summit. “That means taking steps to diversify our supply chains, and we’re not — so we’re not dependent on any one country for necessary product.”
Likewise, in April, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. decoupling from China would be “disastrous” and “destabilizing” for the world.
“As I’ve said, the United States will assert ourselves when our vital interests are at stake,” Yellen said. “But we do not seek to ‘decouple’ our economy from China’s. A full separation of our economies would be disastrous for both countries.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.