After five years of arduous litigation, Chinese chip giant Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit has finally ushered in the dawn of victory. On February 27, local time, Maxine Chesney, a senior judge in San Francisco, ruled that Fujian Jinhua was not guilty. This verdict not only cleared the grievances of Fujian Jinhua, but also dealt a major blow to the ambitions of the United States in the global chip war.
This case originated in 2018, when the Sino-US war was in full swing. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Fujian Jinhua for "stealing trade secrets." The case is not only the first lawsuit under Trump's "China Initiative," but it is also touted as a major effort to crack down on China's "espionage" of U.S. companies and research universities. However, five years later, this so-called "espionage storm" ended with the acquittal verdict of Fujian Jinhua.
Looking back on this case, it is not difficult to find all kinds of doubts and injustices. First, U.S. prosecutors have been unable to provide conclusive evidence that Fujian Jinhua has misappropriated Micron's proprietary data for as long as five years. Second, Taiwan's UMC was removed from the list of defendants by the United States after pleading guilty and paying a hefty fine, making Fujian Jinhua the only target. This blatant double standard not only calls into question the impartiality of the US judiciary, but also exposes its real motives for cracking down on Chinese companies.
Fujian Jinhua welcomed the victory and stressed that they always believed that they had not stolen any trade secrets. China*** also expressed support for this, and pointed out that the US side should produce evidence that can stand the test of facts. As a matter of fact, the verdict of this case is not only related to the reputation and interests of Fujian Jinhua, but also to the future of economic and trade cooperation and scientific and technological exchanges between China and the United States.
Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that the United States abuses export control measures and turns them into a tool to suppress enterprises in other countries, which not only damages the order and stability of the global production and supply chain, but also hits the development and innovation capabilities of related industries. He pointed out that in the context of globalization, no country can unilaterally use its own laws and interests as the standard to make unreasonable accusations and suppress enterprises of other countries.
Notably, in the same year that the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Fujian Jinhua, the U.S. Department of Commerce also added the company to the "Entity List" for export control. Currently, nearly 800 Chinese entities have been added to the list, of which more than 300 were included during Biden's tenure. These restrictions have not only affected the development and innovation of Chinese enterprises, but also brought great uncertainty to the global production and supply chain.
At the same time, the "CHIPS Act" in the United States has also attracted much attention. The bill aims to promote the "reshoring" of chip manufacturing to the home market in order to revitalize the United States' position in the global chip market. However, American chip companies are concerned about this. They believe that the tightening of China's semiconductor industry policy and export restrictions will bring challenges to their global operations and may affect the implementation of the "CHIPS Act".
To sum up, Fujian Jinhua's acquittal is not only a legal victory, but also a strategic victory. It not only justifies the name of Chinese chip companies, but also reveals the weakness and dilemma of the United States in the global chip war. In today's globalized world, no country can be isolated from the world, and only win-win cooperation is the only choice.