“The situation with Nvidia is another reminder that we have to stay diligent,” Ambassador David Perdue told Bloomberg Television in an interview at the Citi China Conference in Shanghai on Wednesday. “National security is part of this economic conversation because economic security is national security. And so, what we’re doing with China is bumpy right now.”
Perdue also said US officials were frustrated about the pace of rare earth shipments from China, saying many companies are still waiting for them. “We’ve been waiting for months on some of these very important elements that go into data centers and aircraft engine manufacturing and so forth,” he said.
While Beijing has denied the woman at the centre of the episode with Huang is one of its spies, the episode could complicate the summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump set for next week at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The third meeting this year between the leaders of the world’s largest economies will be closely watched for signs they can maintain a fragile trade truce that expires in January.
Some key figures in the US have been pushing for tighter export controls on semiconductors in the wake of the spy claims. Nvidia makes chips that are crucial to AI computing equipment and is one of the world’s most valuable businesses. The US has blocked China from access to Nvidia’s best products, partly due to worries advances in AI could have repercussions for national security.
Other points Perdue made in the interview:
- Criticised China for weaponising its dominance in strategic industries, setting up export licensing regime on rare earth magnets.
- “State decree 835 is being used right now with two companies in Europe and the people that work there,” Perdue added. That regulation bars individuals and companies from implementing or complying with foreign restrictive measures that China sees as illegal. “This is the most onerous escalation I’ve seen since I’ve been working out here in 1984,” Perdue added.
- Trump offered to replace some of the oil that China gets from Iran with US crude, though he didn’t indicate how Beijing responded.
- China and the US were continuing to talk and trying to develop ways to resolve disagreements about AI and the military. “We’re working on the idea that what we’re going to try to do is create a crisis mechanism so we can control and try to draw some sort of oversight, into the development of” the tech, Perdue said.
- Denied that a US$14 billion weapons package for Taiwan was delayed. “President Trump has told President Xi he’s going to sell arms to anybody he wants to, and so there’s nothing held up right now. It’s just a matter of when, what goes when, and if it goes. So President Trump’s in control of that.”
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