US places restrictions on China’s leading chipmaker SMIC

The Trump administration has placed new restrictions on exports to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China’s most advanced maker of computer chips, a measure that could deepen the technology conflict between China and the United States.

In a letter Friday, the Department of Commerce told US companies in the chip industry that they must first acquire a license to sell technology to SMIC and its subsidiaries. The department said it was taking the action after a review in which it determined that the Chinese company “may pose an unacceptable risk of diversion to a military end use in the People’s Republic of China.”