China's push for semiconductor dominance is gaining momentum. Bloomberg reported on the 27th that a Chinese state-owned enterprise based in Shanghai has begun producing immersion deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography equipment. Lithography equipment etches circuits onto silicon wafers in the semiconductor manufacturing process, making it a core facility for advanced chip production. If the report is accurate, China has succeeded in producing lithography equipment on its own, breaking through U.S. export restrictions on the Netherlands-based ASML's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment. Chips of the 7-nanometer class or below are typically manufactured using ASML's EUV lithography equipment. Unable to secure advanced EUV equipment due to U.S. sanctions, China appears to have implemented a system capable of producing 7-nanometer-class fine circuits by repeatedly running lower-specification, older-generation DUV lithography processes.
China's memory technology has been assessed as trailing the three global semiconductor powers—Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, and U.S.-based Micron—by two to five years. However, if China accelerates production of memory chips at the 7-nanometer class or below through DUV lithography equipment, that gap will narrow rapidly. China's in-house production of DUV lithography equipment also reveals the paradoxical reality that U.S. technology controls are instead accelerating China's semiconductor self-reliance. Even as the U.S. pressures its allies to block exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, China is steadily building up the achievements of its semiconductor rise through astronomical capital investment and full-scale policy support at the national level.
Chinese DRAM chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) rose to the top of China's market capitalization ranking as soon as it was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and went so far as to declare it would invest 14 trillion won in IPO proceeds into developing next-generation memory such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to become one of the top three global players within three years. With China's semiconductor rise picking up pace like this, if we alone remain bound by bundled regulations and complex licensing and administrative procedures, market leadership could pass over in an instant. The path to survival for Korean semiconductors depends on maintaining a technological lead through an insurmountable gap. The government must boldly clear away uniform, outdated regulations—such as the Yellow Envelope Law and the 52-hour workweek system that shackle corporate investment—and join companies in an all-out sprint so they can win the semiconductor supremacy war on which the nation's fate hinges.
