Washington's chip grab is sociopathic: China Daily editorial

Washington shows it has no moral scruples in its urging of the Republic of Korea to involve its chipmakers in the struggle against China.

Washington calling on the ROK to urge its chipmakers not to fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans Idaho-based Micron from selling chips is not just a gratuitous insult to the ROK but also tells the world how selfish and despotic the United States is as far as its relations with its allies and global development are concerned.

How low can Washington sink?

Given the timing of the request, when ROK President Yoon Suk-yeol is visiting Washington, it can be considered a kind of coercion. Washington has put Yoon in a very difficult situation. It would be impossible for him not to feel that he is being given an ultimatum by Washington. If he acts on the request of the White House, it is not just Yoon as president of the ROK but also his country that will lose dignity.

If anything, what Yoon has said about the Taiwan question and the possibility of the ROK providing military equipment to Ukraine under pressure from Washington have already made him a target of derision domestically and called into question his judgment internationally.

The US unveiled sweeping chip-related export controls on China last October in order to stymie China's development of semiconductors. Washington's weaponizing of economic activities in the name of national security has already seriously disrupted the global supply chains.

The world is watching how far Washington will go in perverting the normal operation of global supply chains and that of the global industry chains in its attempts to suppress China's development.

It has twisted its relations with its allies to such a degree that it shows no concern for the debilitating effects of its actions on its allies, and is placing its allies in an embarrassing and humiliating position. How can such relations be sustainable? It has done such damage to global supply chains by imposing discriminate sanctions that its own technology companies are suffering and so are the American people.

Even if Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix do as Washington has requested under the pressure of the ROK government, the two companies will suffer tremendously, and global supply chains will be further disrupted. As a result, US technology companies will have an even worse time. Meanwhile, China will step up its efforts to realize self-reliance in the core technologies of key fields.

Washington's self-serving bullying in the field of technology will not be well-received as it is harmful to all countries. The practice only further reinforces that it is a rogue outlier in the international community.

It will end up eating itself with its insatiable hunger for dominance.