California Democrats fear more restrictions on China could lead to 'death spiral' for US tech firms

LOS ANGELES - Democratic lawmakers from the western US state of California are urging the Biden administration to halt its reported plans of imposing new restrictions on technology exports to China, arguing that a further round of controls "could send longstanding US companies into a death spiral," Reuters reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, US Democratic lawmakers from California, the largest economy in the United States, said that "unilateral curbs benefit foreign rivals at the expense of US businesses."

"We ask that you pause additional unilateral export controls until you have adequately justified that such controls will not damage US competitiveness in advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment," Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Zoe Lofgren were quoted as saying in a letter addressed to Alan Estevez, who oversees export controls at the US Commerce Department.

In the letter, the lawmakers noted that US allies have not imposed similarly aggressive China export curbs on their own companies.

"The letter is a sign of growing pushback against Biden's semiconductor policy among Democrats from California, home to the US' top chipmaking equipment companies LAM, Applied Materials, and KLA," said the report.

The Netherlands and Japan, home to chipmaking equipment producers ASML and Tokyo Electron, respectively, have also imposed restrictions on equipment exports to China, although they have not gone as far as implementing some of the strictest measures imposed by the United States, it added.