China’s New Chip Could Change Everything

China seems to have opened another front in its chip war with the United States. Despite Washington’s bans on the sale of advanced semiconductors and chipmaking equipment to China, the Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) now seems to have domestic access to advanced chips that could render moot the American bans.

Given the history of technology and innovation, it was only ever a question of time before Beijing found a way to work around the American-inspired bans. Still, that event seems to have occurred more quickly and with more drama than anyone expected when the U.S. restrictions went into effect last year. Now, it is time for Washington to make the next move in the Sino-American tit-for-tat technology war.