United States | Chains of control

The history and limits of America’s favourite new economic weapon

America has ramped up controls on technology trade with China

Employees wearing cleanroom suits walk through the main bay inside the GlobalFoundries semiconductor manufacturing facility in Malta, New York, U.S., on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Production plants for semiconductors have become a focal point as the economic recovery from the pandemic is held back in areas by a shortage of some of the critical electronic components necessary. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Image: Getty Images

Feb 8th 2023|Washington, DC

AT 11:15am ON October 7th, an American official published 139 pages of regulations on a website called the Federal Register. Across East Asia, from Taipei to Nanjing, semiconductor executives panicked. The American government was claiming jurisdiction over every line of code or machine part that had ever passed through the United States, and over the activities of every American citizen, everywhere on the planet. Companies using American code, equipment or people to make advanced computer chips bound for China had to stop, on pain of breaking the law.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Chains of control”