Direct news:What do you think about the British government forcing Chinese companies to cancel their equity investment agreement in Newport Chip Factory?

Special commentator Liu Heping:In fact, since the United States launched the science and technology war against China, the prohibition of Western countries on selling high-end chips to China and the prohibition of Chinese enterprises from investing in their chip industry have occurred frequently, which is not news. However, the British government forced Chinese enterprises to withdraw their equity investment in Newport Chip Factory, which was too much, even to a very strange extent.

First of all, in the past, some western countries, in the name of safeguarding national security, forcefully vetoed and refused to approve relevant agreements before Chinese enterprises were about to invest in their chip industries or acquire their chip enterprises. However, the British government forced to break the contract and withdraw its investment more than a year after Chinese enterprises had completed their equity acquisition of Newport Chip Factory. This is equivalent to declaring your original marriage certificate invalid after two people have married and given birth to children, and using the public power of the state to break up their wives and children. This practice is not only a gross interference in the property rights of enterprises, but also has no spirit of contract. In particular, in order to break up this equity investment agreement involving Chinese enterprises, the British Parliament has also specially tailored a National Security and Investment Law, and for the first time, explained that this law can be traced back to the transaction completed after November 2020. That is to say, we have ignored the basic principle of modern law that the law does not retroactive. Where is there any spirit of rule of law?

In fact, the Newport chip factory, which was acquired by a Chinese enterprise, was not only a well-known chip manufacturer, but also in a situation of loss and insolvency at that time. Moreover, when Chinese enterprises acquired it a year ago, the United States and its allies had already launched a science and technology war against China. In this case, the British government at that time must have examined the investment with a microscope and concluded that the acquisition would not affect Britain's so-called national security. In addition, perhaps to avoid suspicion, Wentai Technology was not directly acquired by itself, but through its wholly-owned Dutch subsidiary. However, it was such a single share acquisition that the British government finally turned over the past account.

In my opinion, one leaf knows the autumn. This action of the British government means that the Western countries led by the United States are increasingly tightening their control over the development of China's chip industry, and they are even willing to encircle and suppress China's chip industry in a tough way, and strictly guard against the subsidiaries of Chinese enterprises in Western countries.

 

Direct news:In your opinion, what impact will the British government force Chinese enterprises to cancel their equity investment agreements with Newport Chip Factory on the development of China's chip industry?

Special commentator Liu Heping:In my opinion, China UK relations should be the first to be affected and impacted in this matter. We know that Johnson, the early British Prime Minister, was once recognized as a strong hardline against China. However, the equity investment of Chinese enterprises in Newport Chip Factory approved by Johnson's government was overthrown by the newly elected British Prime Minister Sunak. This may mean that Sunak's policy towards China is even worse than Johnson's. This is obviously not a good omen for the future China UK relations. Perhaps the temporary cancellation of the meeting between Chinese and British leaders during the G20 meeting has reflected China's attitude and the seriousness of the problem.

Of course, we should also see that in this case, the reckless behavior of the Sunak government has to bear the unshirkable responsibility, but the real culprit behind this is the Biden government of the United States. The Sunak government forcibly withdrew the equity investment of Chinese enterprises in Newport Chip Factory, which was actually the result of the strong pressure exerted by the Biden government. It was also reported that the American enterprise that was not willing to disclose its name was preparing to take over the offer after the Chinese enterprise withdrew its capital. In particular, in addition to spreading the ban on Chinese chips from high-end fields to low-end fields, the United States is also preparing to put pressure on Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and other countries to keep pace with the US chip war against China. In my opinion, the signal behind this is already obvious, just like the United States used the advantages of the steel industry to control the trend of the Second World War. Next, the Biden government wanted to use the technological hegemony in the chip field as a new tool to limit China's technological development.

Such a situation will indeed bring China considerable challenges. Because today, all the achievements of human civilization, especially the achievements of scientific and technological civilization, are based on the common inventions of our predecessors and other countries in the world. A small chip is not only the epitome of human scientific and technological civilization, but also the product of economic globalization. In this case, it is neither necessary nor easy for other countries to develop and produce their own chips from scratch. However, since the Western countries, led by the United States, have already laid out such a pattern, China has no choice but to brave the hardships of innovation and make breakthroughs in chip manufacturing and chip technology research and development at the same time.