(Bloomberg) — Beijing has ordered telecom operators such as China Mobile Ltd. to replace foreign chips in their core networks by 2027, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
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The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the directive earlier this year, the Journal reported, dealing a potential blow to U.S. chipmakers Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Friday morning.
The industry overseer ordered its three biggest state-owned mobile operators, which include China Unicom and China Telecom Corp., to inspect their networks and set deadlines for replacing non-Chinese processors, the newspaper said. Representatives for the three carriers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Beijing is accelerating a campaign to eradicate American technology, in part to circumvent a growing tangle of U.S. sanctions. The government has directed state-backed institutions and companies to abandon iPhones, pressured companies to abandon foreign computers and asked its electric vehicle makers to stick with locally designed silicon.
Read more: China encourages electric vehicle makers to buy local chips as US conflict deepens
The broad, coordinated effort accelerated in 2023 with the rise of national champions like Huawei Technologies Co., which raised the prospect of local alternatives across the technology supply chain. The telecommunications directive reflects moves by Western governments to ban the use of Huawei networking equipment, which they consider a threat to national security.
China’s three state-owned operators are among the country’s biggest cloud and data center providers, using chips from American suppliers.
–With help from Gao Yuan.
(Updates shares in second paragraph.)
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