US: Chinese ban on Micron chips is economic coercion and will not be tolerated

The United States “will not tolerate” China’s large ban on the use of Micron chips, according to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. She states that the US will crack down on such ‘economic coercion’.

Raimondo claims China is targeting a single US company ‘without factual basis’ writes Bloomberg. “We simply see it as economic coercion and we will not tolerate that. We also do not think it will be successful.” The country will now decide what next steps will be taken, the Minister of Economic Affairs said. Earlier this week an American lawmaker, Mike Gallagher, has already proposed imposing trade restrictions on ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese manufacturer of memory chips. However, Raimondo did not want to respond to that proposal.

A week ago, China banned the use of Micron chips by operators of “critical Chinese infrastructure.” This may include the telecom sector and financial institutions such as state-owned banks. The country claims that products from the US memory chip maker do not meet its security assessment and would pose ‘serious risks’ to network security. China does not say exactly which Micron products the ban applies to.