China Premier Visits US-blacklisted Chipmaker in Show of Support

Zheping Huang, Bloomberg News

Samsung Electronics Co. Double-Data-Rate (DDR) memory modules are arranged for a photograph in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, April 5, 2019. Samsung reported its worst operating-profit drop in more than four years, buffeted by falling memory-chip prices and slowing smartphone sales. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang visited the country’s foremost developer of memory chips, in the latest show of government support for US-sanctioned Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. as the two powers clash over technology.

China’s No. 2 official visited Wuhan-based YMTC and Wuhan Huagong Laser Engineering Co. during a two-day trip in Hubei province, according to a Wednesday report by the official Xinhua news agency. Li called for further efforts on technology innovations and more targeted policy support to translate research results into real productivity, Xinhua said. He took a tour of the two companies’ production lines and held discussions with their executives.

Li’s trip comes as President Xi Jinping’s administration is trying to revive an economy struggling to arrest a slide in the property sector, while strengthening national security amid rising military and trade tensions with the US. High-end technologies have become the focal point of that collision, with US limiting Chinese investments in sensitive fields like semiconductors and AI.

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YMTC competes with global peers including Micron Technology Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in developing memory chips used for storing data in PCs, smartphones and other gadgets. Its inclusion in a US trade blacklist in late 2022, along with broad export curbs, deprived it of access to the latest manufacturing hardware.

A YMTC spokesperson declined to comment on Li’s visit.

In March, Li visited companies including electric car maker BYD Co. and Lens Technology Co., an Apple Inc. supplier, in the central province of Hunan, his first trip out of Beijing since becoming premier that month. He took the occasion to rally the private sector to boost innovation and self-reliance.

--With assistance from Gao Yuan.