The Trump administration has slapped heavy restrictions on US companies working with Chinese semiconductor company Fujian Jinhua, citing “national security”, adding a new front in the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
The move by the US commerce department, announced on Monday, was the latest sign of US anxiety over China’s development of sensitive technologies as the stand-off between the countries drags on.
US officials are demanding that China abandon practices such as forced technology transfer and the theft of intellectual property in exchange for lifting tariffs on $250bn of Chinese imports this year. But there have been no signs of a breakthrough ahead of a meeting in late November between Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, and Donald Trump, his US counterpart, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Argentina.