China Wants to Bridge Gap in Chip Manufacturing Capacity with New Initiatives

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has announced new initiatives to enhance the country’s manufacturing capabilities, particularly in the production of advanced semiconductor materials and automotive chips. The move was taken in response to reports highlighting the country’s manufacturing capabilities as less advanced than those of other countries.

Addressing Shortages in Core Industries

MIIT recently released “Opinions on Manufacturing Reliability Improvement” report outlines plans to overcome basic product reliability deficiencies and improve core component quality in three industries: machinery, electronics, and automotive. foreign country.

US-China Trade War

The initiative comes amid an ongoing trade war with the US, which has imposed broad restrictions on chip exports to China over concerns over potential military modernization efforts and human rights abuses. The restrictions also affect US business trading with non-US companies exporting chips to China, causing friction and preventing semiconductor manufacturers such as ASML and Arm from selling into what was previously one of their biggest markets.

China’s Two Step Approach

The MIIT plan proposes a “two-step” approach to improve manufacturing reliability. The first phase, planned for completion in 2025, focuses on strengthening foundations and improving services. The goal was to build more than 100 typical demonstrations of reliability improvement and encourage more than 1,000 companies to implement reliability improvement measures.

The second phase, which will be completed by 2030, focuses on setting benchmarks, strengthening driving forces and promoting transformation. The goal is to bring the reliability level of the 10 main core product types to the international advanced level, cultivate a group of competitive and influential public service institutions and reliability professionals, and promote the overall level of manufacturing reliability in China to a new level.

Focus on Key Industries

The MIIT initiative specifically targets the machinery, electronics and automotive industries due to its large industrial scale, high proportion of total industrial output and strong radiation driving capability. The plan aims to improve the reliability of core basic components, core basic electronic components, key software, key basic materials, and basic processes to lay a solid foundation for improving the reliability of related industrial products.