Even as US President Donald Trump upends China’s factory floors, he seems to be laying the ground for an easing in the tech war. In a reversal this week, the White House told chipmaker Nvidia it could soon resume sales of its less advanced China-focused H20 artificial intelligence accelerator. AMD received similar assurances from the US Commerce Department.
Only a few years ago, the Biden administration had declared export controls a “new strategic asset” to help the US maintain “as large a lead as possible” over China in advanced technology. Trump’s shift in strategy, which angered China hawks in Washington, raises a key question as he sets the stage for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year: how far will the US go in rolling back a range of measures restricting business between the world’s biggest economies imposed in the name of national security?
