COVID controls and chip wars

Here’s what else you need to know about China today:

China has stepped up COVID-zero curbs in Shanghai and other major cities to control a surge in cases just days before the 20th Party Congress begins on Sunday in Beijing.

• In Shanghai, various degrees of control measures were rolled out across the city, after the financial hub reported 47 new infections for Wednesday, the most since July 13: Several schools moved to online classes, and some districts have shut down entertainment and sporting venues, such as bars and cinemas.
• Huadu District in Guangzhou started a new round of mass testing on Thursday, stopped dine-in services at restaurants, and suspended in-person classes at schools.
• Residents of a hi-tech zone in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, have to test twice a day for three consecutive days from Wednesday.
• The port city of Tianjin has locked down one district.

The world’s chipmaking giants are rushing to figure out how to change their highly interconnected global supply chains to comply with new U.S. restrictions on technology exports to China.

• American-allied chip firms got a reprieve: Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung have reportedly been granted one-year licenses that will allow them to continue ordering chipmaking equipment to maintain their production lines in China. TSMC’s quarterly profit rose 79.7% compared with a year earlier to $8.8 billion as demand surged over the news.
• Advanced chip toolmakers are scrambling: Dutch-based ASML told its employees in the U.S. to “refrain — either directly, or indirectly — from servicing, shipping or providing support to any customers in China until further notice,” according to an internal email per Bloomberg. Beijing-based Naura Technology has also asked its U.S. engineers to stop working on R&D projects, the South China Morning Post reports.

Meanwhile, China lamented the chip restrictions: Earlier today, the China Semiconductor Industry Association released a statement requesting the U.S. government to reverse the two new semiconductor export controls introduced on October 7 “for the well-being of the global semiconductor industry” and “millions of semiconductor workers and professionals.” See today’s Business briefs from the Chinese media, with more links and info on:

• Digger sales are up again.
• Lithium price goes higher still.

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