One year later, ZTE was once again 'banned' by the U.S. Department of Commerce. On April 17th, the U.S. Department of Commerce responded resolutely for US companies banned from selling components to ZTE in the next seven years. Among the top ten industries for export sanctions, the information and communication industry of ZTE has become the top target. The company's efforts to develop 5G technology is an important factor in being 'focused on'. Industry experts point out that through this sanctions, it can be seen that China In chips, components and components are still relatively weak, so vigorously developing innovative industries and gradually making up for industry gaps are the ultimate means of responding to such turmoil.
The U.S. re-offering of ZTE 'kills'
On the evening of April 16, U.S. Department of Commerce officials disclosed that because of violations of U.S. regulations, U.S. companies were banned from selling components to Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer ZTE within the next seven years. US Department of Commerce officials stated that according to the agreement at that time, ZTE Corporation Promising to dismiss 4 senior employees and punish 35 employees by reducing bonuses or penalties. However, ZTE admitted in March this year that the company only dismissed 4 senior employees and did not penalize or reduce the bonus of 35 employees.
In this regard, ZTE Corporation stated through official micro-information that ZTE has learned of the US Department of Commerce’s refusal to activate the company. The company is fully evaluating the possible impact of this event on the company and actively communicating and responding with the parties.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China also stated that China noted the measures announced by the US Department of Commerce regarding the export control of ZTE. China has always required Chinese enterprises to abide by the laws and policies of the host country and conduct operations legally and compliantly during the overseas operations. ZTE Corporation Hundreds of U.S. companies have conducted extensive trade and investment cooperation and contributed tens of thousands of jobs to the United States. We hope that the U.S. will properly handle them in accordance with laws and regulations, and create a fair, equitable and stable legal and policy environment for enterprises. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce will pay close attention to the progress of the situation and are ready to take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies.
Following the footsteps of the United States, on the morning of April 17th, U.S. ally Britain also issued a 'encirclement order' to ZTE. The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) warned the British telecommunications industry not to use ZTE's equipment and services, saying that it may be possible. It will pose a risk to British national security.
According to expert analysis, ZTE was selected to impose sanctions at the current sensitive time. The reason for this is because ZTE did not 'punish or reduce the bonus of 35 employees' in accordance with the agreement. However, this reason cannot withstand scrutiny. The real intention behind ZTE's ZTE is to suppress China's high-tech companies and direct to China's strategy of manufacturing 2025. In the new generation of information technology industry that is one of China's top 20 strategic manufacturing fields, ZTE and Huawei represent China. 5G technology research and development has been in a leading position in the world.
This is not the first time that the United States has 'blocked' ZTE. In March 2016, the U.S. government placed ZTE on the list of export restrictions on the grounds that ZTE and its three affiliates violated US-related export bans and restricted U.S. suppliers to ZTE exports US products including chips.
Global industrial chain will be affected
ZTE's efforts to develop 5G technology is an important factor for the United States to “fix up”. It is not just ZTE. Huawei's mobile phones have been subject to unrestricted U.S. trade restrictions. Some time ago, Broadcom planned to acquire Qualcomm, which was forcibly rejected by the U.S. government. It is because of concerns that after Qualcomm was acquired, 5G innovation cannot lead competitors such as China.
After more than 20 years, China has gone from '2G to accompany' to '3G to follow' to '4G to run' and is now gradually becoming a '5G leader'. 4 global 4G/5G equipment supply after fierce competition Among the Shangzhong, two are Chinese manufacturers. ZTE is one of them. Currently, it has mastered 5G end-to-end product technology and plans to introduce the pre-commercial 5G solution in the second half of this year.
Some industry analysts believe that the communications industry is one of the most influential industries that have benefited globalization and promoted the development of globalization. A single country cannot build the entire industry ecosystem. The global industrial division of labor is very meticulous. This US sanctions ZTE, if not Proper settlement will give ZTE, to China's telecommunications industry, and bring greater negative impact to the global communications industry chain.
In terms of ZTE, Deutsche Bank stated that even if it can purchase from other domestic suppliers, the company's ability to use the reconfigured products to provide services to customers may also be seriously affected, given that certain chips and filters are purchased from the United States and are difficult to Replaced, it is expected that the company's wireless products will be affected.
In this regard, senior communications expert Xiang Ligang said that the US sanctions against ZTE will have a negative impact on ZTE, but US companies will also face immediate losses. Small and medium-sized companies may face catastrophe, Qualcomm, If large companies such as Intel lose large customers such as ZTE, it is not good news for them. If ZTE turns to other competitors, such as mobile phones using MediaTek products, this is not a good thing for Qualcomm.
Most of these companies are among the top 10 optical component suppliers in the world. The reason for the stock price plummets is that they rely heavily on the procurement of Chinese equipment manufacturers such as ZTE and rely heavily on the Chinese market. For example, Acacia, 30% of its performance is contributed by ZTE. In the information and communications industry, it's very difficult for US suppliers to be alone. It's bound to be a lose-lose outcome. ' Xiang Ligang said.
The CICC report pointed out that the U.S. Department of Commerce imposes a prohibition of export authority on ZTE. Failure to reach a settlement within 1-2 months will affect the normal production and sales of communications equipment and mobile phones, and will also affect the current global and Chinese operations. The construction of commercial networks will have a certain impact and may affect the future promotion of 5G networks. ZTE currently accounts for approximately 10% of the global telecommunications equipment market and approximately 30% of the market share of China's telecommunications equipment market. ZTE Corporation has 1-2 Monthly inventory of parts and components, if it is not reached as soon as possible, will affect related businesses.
Blockade is an opportunity for Chinese companies
Although the results of the blockade will definitely be detrimental to ZTE, it may be a good thing for the Chinese industry. 'This blockade may be our opportunity, such as mobile phone chips. China used TD-SCDMA in 3G era, and chip makers all over the world. No support, China can only make mobile phone chips by itself. Therefore, a group of companies such as Spreadtrum and Lianxin will rise. Although it is difficult, it can force these companies to grow. It just gives Chinese companies a market space, for several years. , China’s mobile phone chips have already reached a certain scale, including the addition of Huawei and Hass behind. Now every year, hundreds of millions of China’s own mobile phone chips are running on mobile phones, and this quantity is still increasing. This is the blockade to China. Get the opportunity.' Xiang Ligang frankly.
Through this sanctions, we can see that China is still relatively weak in chips and components. The domestic communication website C114 analysis pointed out that MediaTek and Spreadtrum are replacing Qualcomm on the terminal baseband chip, but at the server chip level, US suppliers In the core optical chip level of the communications network, mainly U.S. suppliers are dominant. Therefore, vigorously developing innovative industries and gradually making up for industry gaps are the ultimate means of responding to such storms.
On March 23rd, IC Insights announced the 2017 global Fabless chip company. U.S. companies account for about 53% of the global market share. Together with New Broadcom, which is about to relocate to the United States, the U.S. accounted for approximately 69%. It is a unique company. China 2017 The global share accounted for about 11%, which was lower than the 16% in Taiwan, China, and ranked third. It also included Huawei, Hass, ZTE Microelectronics and Datang Semiconductor's own chips. In addition to these, China's chips can only account for 5 %-6%.
According to the data, China needs to import 230 billion U.S. dollars each year, and it has ranked first in single product imports for many years. This 230 billion U.S. dollar chip is either a customer-designated chip that cannot be changed, or China cannot independently design and manufacture must import it. chip.
Of course, Chinese chips are also gradually developing. According to IC Insights released the 2017 top ten global Fabless rankings, there are two domestic companies to enter the top ten, namely Hass and Ziguang Group (Group News +RDA) The two countries ranked 7th and 10th respectively with 4.715 billion U.S. dollars and 2.50 billion U.S. dollars in revenue. Among them, Hass's year-on-year growth rate reached an astonishing 21%, just behind last year's fiery Nvidia and AMD. Fabless ranks third in the world in growth.
For the friction between high-tech fields in China and the United States, Xiang Ligang believes that the future will continue to strengthen. 'The gap between the high-tech fields in China and the United States was huge, and this gap is continuously decreasing. Take the communications field as an example, Motorola, Companies such as Cisco and Lucent have occupied a large share of the Chinese market in the past, but today their share has shrunk, and they have even disappeared. Qualcomm and Intel’s enterprises rely heavily on Chinese customers. Without China’s mobile phone companies, Qualcomm cannot survive. , Without Chinese customers, Intel is also very hard hit. At the same time, Chinese companies are growing, gradually eroding the market of American companies. In this case, conflicts are difficult to avoid.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Shi Feiyue/Wen Song Yuanyuan/tabulation