China produced 29.4 billion units of integrated circuits (ICs) in March, down only 3% from a year ago and narrowing significantly from the 17% year-on-year drop in the first two months of the year, according to new numbers published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published on Tuesday.
Last month, China produced 29.4 billion units of integrated circuits (ICs), which is just 3% lower than in March 2022, according to monthly industrial output data released on Tuesday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
While that’s a slight loss, it’s much smaller than the 17% year-on drop seen in January and February of this year. In fact, the report notes that the NBS often revises its numbers “to reflect changes in the companies included in its samples,” with Chinese media pointing out that earlier data actually shows a growth in chip output last month as compared to a year prior, rather than a decline.
Beginning in October, the Joe Biden administration tightened export controls to China, pressuring the makers of the world’s most advanced microchips in Taiwan, South Korea, and the Netherlands to end their business deals with mainland Chinese companies. However, China produces 36% of the world’s electronics, making it a massive market for microchips. The country buys up more than half of South Korea’s chip exports and a substantial part of those from Taiwan and Japan, meaning Washington’s efforts to “decouple” them from the Chinese economy have created economic chaos.
That has included sanctions on leading Chinese tech companies, blocking them from doing business in the US or other Western countries, especially by using false claims that the firms are obligated to spy on their users on behalf of the Chinese government. Congressional hearings last month aimed at pushing a ban on social media app TikTok in the US helped illustrate how those fears are both unfounded and have merged with a general increase in anti-Asian hatred in the United States, with one US lawmaker accusing TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is Singaporean, of being required by law to do the bidding of the Communist Party of China.
However, Washington’s drive to isolate China from its suppliers was long anticipated by Beijing, which has poured money into developing and expanding a domestic microchip manufacturing industry. In February, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the national legislature to launch an even greater effort to place China at the head of a “sci-tech revolution” with new funding for school tech programs as well as research labs.