Beijing To Pause Probes Into US Chipmakers: White House

Authored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

China will halt investigations targeting U.S. companies involved in the semiconductor supply chain and issue licenses to exporters of rare earth and other minerals critical to high-tech industries, according to the White House.

Following months of trade tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Oct. 30 sat down together in South Korea, to make a deal on a range of issues that have strained ties between the world’s two largest economies.

Beijing agreed to postpone, for one year, the implementation of the export controls on rare earths and related products that it had announced on Oct. 9. In addition, the Chinese regime will “terminate various investigations targeting U.S. companies in the semiconductor supply chain, including its antitrust, anti-monopoly, and anti-dumping investigations,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House on Nov. 1.

As part of the agreement, the Chinese regime will issue “general licenses” valid for exports of rare earth, gallium, germanium, antimony, and graphite, the fact sheet stated. The licenses are designed for the “benefit of U.S. end users and their suppliers around the world,” effectively lifting the restrictions the regime imposed in October 2022 and April of this year, it said.

The White House didn’t specify which U.S. technology companies might be excluded from Beijing’s scrutiny. The regime’s most recent target is Qualcomm. The regime’s State Administration of Market Supervision launched an antitrust probe into the U.S. chip-making giant on Oct. 10.

Under the deal, China will also take “appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world,” the White House said.

Though headquartered in the Netherlands, chipmaker Nexperia is owned by Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Wingtech Technology.

The regime recently blocked Nexperia from shipping certain products, the company said on Oct. 14, citing an export control notice it received from China’s commerce ministry. That sparked concerns about critical disruptions in the supply chain for U.S. and European automakers.

On Nov. 1, the Chinese commerce ministry issued a statement indicating plans to relax restrictions on goods produced by Nexperia’s Chinese branches.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News shortly after the Trump–Xi summit on Oct. 30 that Washington and Beijing could sign the trade deal as soon as this week.