Nation's export curbs on key semiconductor materials seen as fair

China's export restrictions on gallium and germanium will help provide a better balance between production and reserves of the two key raw materials used in the semiconductor industry, experts said on Wednesday.

The restrictions are also in line with international practices of protecting a nation's strategic mineral resources, they said.

Wei Jianguo, former vice-minister of commerce, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily that under the principles of the World Trade Organization, China has the right to implement export control measures to ensure its national security and interests.

The comments came after the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday that the country will impose export restrictions starting Aug 1 to protect its national security and interests.

"This is just the beginning of China's countermeasures. If the high-tech restrictions on China become tougher in the future, China's countermeasures will also escalate. China's toolbox has many more types of measures available," said Wei, who is also vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Foreign media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, on Tuesday quoted anonymous sources as saying that the United States plans to restrict China's access to cloud computing technologies.

"Any attempt to promote decoupling through hegemonism, including suppressing Chinese enterprises, will ultimately be a stone thrown at one's own feet," Wei said.

According to Wei, China is the world's biggest producer of germanium and gallium. The key production chains of the two resources are also located in the country, and China accounts for more than 70 percent of the world's total production capacity of germanium.

However, the US has the world's largest reserve of germanium, with about 3,870 metric tons, which accounts for 45 percent of total global reserves. By comparison, China has 3,500 tons, or 40 percent of reserves, Wei said.

"For natural resources such as oil and rare metals, some countries have a large share of reserves, but seldom exploit their resources and only use other countries' resources, which makes it difficult for them to ramp up production quickly to deal with emerging situations," Wei said.

Li Yong, deputy director of the expert committee of the China International Trade Association, said the export controls will help better balance the relationship between supply and reserves.

Some countries have stopped mining the minerals, for fear of environmental pollution, and rely on imports from China, causing an imbalance between supply and reserves. However, these countries exaggerate the risk of relying on China's imports, which is neither fair nor reasonable, Li said.

If some countries deliberately interpret in a political way, overhype China's export controls, and take policy measures to force companies to avoid supplies from China, it will disturb the global semiconductor industry and lead to politicized distortion of market expectations, Li said.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, said a lot of the tension between the US and China arises from the US side.

"This is the US' mistake because some Americans think that if China is rising, the US must be losing," he said. "But this is false. Economics is a win-win cooperative game."

masi@chinadaily.com.cn