A Pissing Contest, and the Rest of Us Need Umbrellas

In response to threats by the United States to sanction any entity that purchases Huwaei chips, the PRC has announced that any entity involved in such activities will be subject to criminal sanctions under Chinese law.

Needless to say, it's going to be the rest of us that suffer as a result of this:

China said it could take legal action against anyone enforcing US restrictions on using Huawei Technologies Co.’s AI chips, escalating a dispute that’s upset a tentative truce on tariffs.

“China believes that the US abuses export controls to contain and suppress China, which violates international law and basic norms of international relations,” the Commerce Ministry in Beijing said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that this hurt the country’s development interests and companies.

“Any organization or individual that implements or assists in the implementation of US measures” would be subject to the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law and “and must bear corresponding legal responsibilities,” the ministry said.

The statement comes a day after China said the Trump administration undermined recent trade talks in Geneva because it warned that using the Huawei semiconductors “anywhere in the world” would violate US export controls.

I'm rather unclear on how a Chinese company exporting domestically manufactured chips to another country would violate US sanctions, there is no US involvement here, but this does seem to be the norm for US foreign policy over the past few decades.

Rather unsurprisingly, the US response was to backtrack:

The US Commerce Department has changed its wording to say the agency was issuing guidance about the risks of using China’s “advanced computing ICs, including specific Huawei Ascend chips,” removing the “anywhere in the world” reference. The formal guidance, dated May 13, says using Huawei’s Ascend chips “risks” violating export controls.

Over the past few years, China has established a legislative framework to push back against US unilateral sanctions, and given the current environment, where the Trump administration is literally putting tariffs on islands inhabited entirely by penguins, it seems to me that a significant portion of the world is likely to take China's side on this.

This is f%$#ed up and sh%$.