Beijing’s foreign ministry hit the MATCH Act on the eve of the Xi summit, with a 150-day alignment deadline for Japan and the Netherlands at the heart of the legislation
Beijing has sharpened its criticism of US legislation that would tighten controls on semiconductor manufacturing equipment, on the morning Donald Trump arrived in the Chinese capital for a state visit and summit with Xi Jinping.
The Chinese foreign ministry said the bill, the MATCH Act now moving through Congress, was further evidence of what spokesperson Lin Jian has repeatedly called Washington’s “overstretching of the concept of national security” and “malicious blocking and suppression” of Chinese industry.
The timing of the comments is the point. Trump and Xi are scheduled to meet on Thursday and Friday, with trade, AI, export controls, Taiwan, and the war in Iran on the agenda, and chip equipment is the most procedurally advanced of the technology files.
The Multilateral Alignment of Technology Controls on Hardware Act, introduced by Representative Michael Baumgartner on 2 April and given a Senate companion six days later by Pete Ricketts, Andy Kim, Jim Risch, and Chuck Schumer, cleared the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 22 April.
