Radio France Internationale (RFI) Chinese version reported on the 6th that China is adopting an unprecedented and unusual strategy to circumvent U.S. semiconductor sanctions.

The article pointed out that "China's semiconductor industry continues its unique development even amidst the strengthening U.S. sanctions" and introduced an economic column by Robin Rivaton, CEO of the French real estate tech company Stonall, published in the French magazine L'Express.

He pointed out that what is important for China under U.S. sanctions is not to produce cutting-edge and perfect semiconductors, but to stably produce domestically made semiconductors and continuously improve them. As a symbolic example, he cited the event where it was confirmed that memory chips made by China's ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) were installed in products from U.S. CORSAIR. While ChangXin Memory Technologies had a strong impression of being a manufacturer primarily for the Chinese domestic market, it is said that its penetration into overseas markets is also beginning to advance.

Furthermore, in China's 15th Five-Year Plan announced this year, "advancement of mature processes" is advocated for the integrated circuit field. According to Mr. Rivaton, China is choosing a "realistic strategy" of improving existing technologies to enhance performance, rather than dramatic technological innovation to break through U.S. sanctions. An example of this is a patent related to Huawei Technologies' (Huawei) lithography technology; because China cannot obtain state-of-the-art EUV lithography equipment, it is exploring methods to repeatedly expose the same circuit multiple times with older generation equipment to approximate high-performance chips.

The article pointed out that recent semiconductor debates had been biased towards advanced process competition such as "7nm" and "5nm," and stated that "currently, interest is shifting to whether China can build its own industrial system independent of external supply chains."

Mr. Rivaton said, 'China is simultaneously investing in next-generation technologies such as 3D stacking and new materials, while extracting maximum value from mature technologies. The biggest miscalculation of the West lies in having regarded semiconductor competition as merely a competition for miniaturization,' and indicated the view that China aims not only for breakthroughs in cutting-edge technology but also for the long-term construction of an independent semiconductor ecosystem. (Translation/Editing: Kitada)