www.eastasiaforum.org, Feb. 22, 2021 –
A priority in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–25) is to strengthen China's autonomy in semiconductor production. This is in response to US sanctions restricting the supply of chips containing US technology to China. The trade war is a reminder for Chinese leadership that it can no longer rely on imports and must develop in-house core technology and pursue technological leapfrogging, especially in essential components such as semiconductors.
People look at the semiconductor products exhibited at the 2020 World Semiconductor Conference in Nanjing city, east China's Jiangsu province, 27 August 2020.
China's demand for modern and emerging technologies is on the rise. Semiconductor imports increased to over US$300 billion in 2019 and were the country's largest import item. China supplies just 30 per cent of its chips domestically. Chip production is a complex process involving different components and manufacturing stages. China has made progress in chip design – Huawei successfully developed its in-house premium-tiered chip, Kirin, for its 5G equipment and flagship smartphones. By some measures, Kirin is as competitive as chips made by commercial rivals Qualcomm and Samsung.