After my last pre-vacation posting a couple of weeks ago, I am stunned to read that a Chinese state-owned company is proposing to buy Micron Technology, based in Boise, and a giant in the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Micron is one of the world’s largest memory-chip makers. Those are not the very high end of the semiconductor world, but they are an essential element. And Micron makes other types of chips that are more sophisticated.
We read that Tsinghua Unigroup, an obvious national champion, has been buying other Chinese chip makers, such as Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics, and has become the largest Chinese partner of Intel. The Chinese government is using a state-owned and state-controlled entity to make a leap into the heart of the U.S. semiconductor industry.
It may make financial sense to sell out for $23 billion to the Chinese, but it’s absolutely insane from a national security point of view and also from a national economic strategy point of view. The analysts on Wall Street won’t understand it when I say that certain industries are strategic. They have a value that goes beyond their financial value. They are important to maintain under U.S. control, particularly at a time when the Chinese are asserting themselves militarily in the South China Sea and at a time when the technology tensions between the two countries have reached a fever pitch. Trust has rapidly evaporated.
There is no way this deal makes sense for America. It must be stopped.
