HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday that a U.S. order for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to some Chinese customers – as reported by Reuters – proved that the United States was “playing the card of Taiwan” to increase tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the United States wanted to worsen the situation with Taiwan and such a move undermined the interests of Taiwanese companies. She was asked about the messages at a press conference.
The comments are China’s first official response after Reuters reported on Sunday that the US had ordered TSMC to do so. TSMC halted shipments starting Monday, a source familiar with the matter had said.
The chips are often used in artificial intelligence applications and come as both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about the inadequacy of export controls on China and their enforcement by the Commerce Department.
TSMC informed the US Department of Commerce a few weeks ago that one of its chips had been found in a Huawei AI processor.
Chinese tech giant Huawei, which is at the center of the U.S. action, is on a restricted trading list, which requires suppliers to obtain licenses to ship goods or technology to the company.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sonali Paul)
