A bipartisan group of American lawmakers is pushing for a “dramatic” expansion of export controls on chip manufacturing equipment to China and alignment from US allies in restrictions, according to a report released on Tuesday.
Their efforts come amid concern that US President Donald Trump is compromising national security in pursuit of a trade deal with China, as advocates of tougher technology restrictions fear being sidelined by the growing influence of the tech industry.
“If we are serious about limiting Chinese semiconductor advancement, countrywide technology controls are the only way,” congressman John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said at a Tuesday event hosted by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, a think tank at Georgetown University.
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“Our controls must be equally enforced by our allies. If ASML or Tokyo Electron keep selling … our controls leak like a sieve. We must persuade, and if necessary, pressure partners in the Netherlands and Japan to enforce synchronised restrictions,” the Republican chairman whose committee produced the report continued.
The report ’s release comes days after the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security expanded its export controls for sensitive items, including chipmaking tools, from only designated firms to include any company that is 50 per cent or more owned, directly or indirectly, by those firms.
Chairman John Moolenaar speaks during a House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party hearing in July in Washington. (Photo: Getty Images) But the House committee in its report said that those restrictions do not go far enough. Entities in China “do not need official corporate links to cooperate effectively with each other to evade US export controls,” the lawmakers, which include Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the committee’s top Democrat, wrote.
Specifically, the lawmakers want countrywide controls for China with a licensing policy of presumption of denial, to apply to any chipmaking tools and related components useful for making both advanced and legacy chips.
They also recommend a widened list of restricted entities and prohibitions on all allied manufacturers from selling to additional Chinese military entities.
Chip restrictions from recent years have proven to not be enough, the lawmakers said. Chinese firms last year bought US$38 billion in equipment from five top chipmaking tool suppliers, the report noted, marking a 66 per cent increase from 2022 when many of the tool export restrictions were introduced. China also accounted for about 39 per cent of the aggregate sales of the five firms – Applied Materials, ASML, KLA, Lam Research, and Tokyo Electron – the report found.
Advocates of looser controls – a position supported by Beijing – argue that it serves US interests to keep China dependent on American technology, preventing Chinese firms from building the scale and market share needed to challenge US companies globally.
Over the summer, Trump lifted US restrictions on sales of certain AI chips made by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices in exchange for a 15 per cent government cut. Other advanced chips, however, remain barred from sale to China, and it remains unclear how many of Washington’s export curbs will be eased as negotiations with Beijing continue.
