China Slams U.S. for 'Abuse' of Semiconductor Export Controls Amid Renewed Trade Tensions

China has sharply criticized the United States for what it calls the “abuse” of semiconductor export controls, following fresh accusations from President Donald Trump that Beijing had breached a preliminary trade agreement between the two nations.

“China once again urges the U.S. to immediately correct its erroneous actions,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China’s U.S. Embassy, accusing Washington of applying “discriminatory restrictions” in the chip sector. The remarks follow a May 12 truce in which both sides agreed to suspend most tariffs for 90 days after high-level talks in Geneva.

The latest flare-up centers on U.S. efforts to curb Chinese access to advanced chip technologies, a strategy first initiated under Trump’s earlier term and recently intensified. This month, the U.S. blocked domestic firms from importing or using artificial intelligence chips from Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Companies like Synopsys and Cadence have received government notices to halt chip software sales to China, while Nvidia’s H20 chip, designed to comply with 2022 export restrictions, has now also been banned. The company warned that the move could cost it up to $8 billion in lost sales for the quarter.

“The assumption that China can’t make AI chips was always questionable,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told investors, adding that export controls could accelerate China’s push to develop a domestic chip ecosystem.

While the Trump administration has reversed the broader “AI diffusion rule” introduced during the Biden years, it plans to issue a new export framework in the coming months, tightening oversight without triggering global disruptions.

As the rivalry deepens, analysts say the semiconductor war is becoming a central battleground in the U.S.-China relationship, one that extends beyond economics into national security and technological supremacy.