Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp, the Chinese memory chip producer, has been stockpiling foreign equipment for months in anticipation that the US is preparing to kneecap one of China’s national champions.
Four YMTC employees said the company had been preparing for Washington to impose export controls, as US lawmakers urged the Biden administration to punish the state-backed company for allegedly helping the Chinese military and violating trade restrictions by supplying chips to Huawei, the Chinese telecoms company.
“We’ve been doing everything possible beforehand to support existing production lines, such as stockpiling all kinds of equipment,” said one senior YMTC engineer.