China warns against new export controls on US chips after Nvidia scandal

BEIJING: China warned the United States on Friday (Nov 13) against putting additional export controls on semiconductors in the wake of the scandal surrounding AI chip giant Nvidia.

China "has consistently opposed the abuse of export control measures, which disrupts the stability of global industrial and supply chains and serves no party's interests," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular briefing when asked about calls from US lawmakers to impose more limits on exports of chip equipment to China.

"China and the United States should work together to implement the important consensus reached by their respective heads of state and maintain the stable development of China-US economic and trade relations," Mao said.

Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang - who resigned on Thursday - has admitted to an affair, reportedly with Alice Huang, a former senior executive at Singapore-based data centre company Megaspeed.

Reports allege the Commerce Department under Secretary Howard Lutnick may have failed to act on suspicions that Megaspeed was helping reroute restricted Nvidia technology to China.

US media quoted US lawmakers as saying that they were in favour of imposing additional export controls on chips to China as a result of the snowballing scandal.

"The export controls on chips to China has been a big issue around here. I'm in favour of limiting those exports," House speaker Mike Johnson was quoted as saying.

"I think there is a developing consensus in Congress that is an important position to take."

US intelligence reportedly circulated a memo this spring alleging that Alice Huang - no relation to Jensen Huang - was an asset of China's Ministry of State Security.

Beijing has rejected the allegations and on Thursday said that they are a "pretext for imposing a technological blockade" to stop China advancing in artificial intelligence technology.

The furore comes ahead of a meeting expected next week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Shenzhen in southern China at an APEC gathering.