Users of sensitive computer equipment must stop buying products from Micron, the biggest US memory chipmaker, and operators of key infrastructure in China are now barred from buying from the company as a result of alleged ‘serious network security risks’. Micron produces a broad range of products including DRAM chips, flash memory, and solid-state hard drives.
The move follows the US administration’s decision last year to ban approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei Technologies and ZTE, saying that they posed a risk to US national security.
Micron is the first US chipmaker to be targeted by Beijing after a series of export controls were imposed by Washington on certain US components and chipmaking tools preventing then being used to advance China's military capabilities.
But the decision also comes at a time when the West is said to want to de-risk from China rather than decouple, which means diversifying supply chains and not cutting ties completely.
President Biden has also called for an ‘open hotline’ between Washington and Beijing – an eminently sensible move at a time of increased tension between these two global giants and when ‘jaw-jaw’ is far more palatable than the alternative.
