This piece in the New York Times explains how Intel and Nvidia sell semiconductors to a middleman in China who then sells them to authorities running the largest surveillance operation in the world against the Uighur minority population. Some even call it genocide.
The fact that President Xi Jinping has declared a “military-civil fusion” means that any technology obtained or developed by state-owned enterprises or once-private companies such as Alibaba can be commandeered by the People’s Liberation Army. Does the United States really want to be selling semiconductors, high-res cameras and other dual use items that can help Xi command his surveillance state and expand militarily? What about DNA-testing equipment? Thermo-Fisher had to stop its sales of that equipment once word surfaced about how the Chinese were using it.
CEOs of American tech companies should have seen this day coming. But they have clung to the belief that they could make a great deal of money in China without any real consideration for U.S. national security or U.S. human rights values. That position is crumbling and it can only continue to erode under a Biden presidency. I predict pressures are going to build not only on Intel and Nvidia, but also Microsoft (which has helped China develop its AI industry), Apple, Qualcomm, Amazon Web Services, Oracle and others. The easy days are ending.
