Trump administration started fighting back on Chinese chipmaking industrial espionage
"This is really important," one Trump appointee reported an Obama official tellinh him during the presidential transition, regarding China's technological advances, "but there's nothing you can do."
The new administration's China team didn't agree. They concluded "that everything we're competing on...rests on the cornerstone of semiconductor mastery." Inaction wasn't an option.
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Test case when a Chinese company Jinhua was caught stealing 900 documents from UMC related to how to preoduce DRAM chips. Micron sued, and Jinhua counter-sued in China. Usually Chinese courts quickly arrive at harsh penalties on foreign companies in such cases.
Trump administration flipped the script by making an agreement with Japan to not sell the needed machinery to make DRAM chips. Commerce Secertary Wilbur Ross pulled the trigger despite concerns from Mnuchin. Within months production by Jinhua stopped.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chip_War/JH-HEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22this+is+really+important%22,+one+trump+appointee+reported+an+obama+official+telling+him&pg=PA300&printsec=frontcover