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The White House has asked South Korea to urge its chipmakers not to fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans Idaho-based Micron from selling chips.
The US made the request as President Yoon Suk-yeol prepares to travel to Washington for a state visit on Monday, according to four people familiar with talks between the White House and presidential office in Seoul.
China this month launched a national security review into Micron, one of three dominant players in the global Dram memory chip market, with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
It is unclear whether the Cyberspace Administration of China will take punitive action after its probe.
But the stakes are high for Micron, as mainland China and Hong Kong generated 25 per cent of its $30.8bn in revenue last year.
US officials and business executives believe the CAC probe is Beijing’s retaliation against the tough actions taken by President Joe Biden to help prevent China from obtaining or producing advanced semiconductors.
The Micron case has emerged as a litmus test of whether Beijing is willing to take coercive economic measures against a major US company for the first time.
Here’s what I’m keeping tabs on today:
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EU meeting: The Foreign Affairs Council is meeting in Luxembourg today, where EU ministers are set to discuss Russian aggression against Ukraine.
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Ramadan: Financial markets remain closed today for Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, in Pakistan.
Five more top stories
1. NBCUniversal boss Jeff Shell ousted over ‘inappropriate relationship’, after an investigation into alleged inappropriate conduct.
2. Countries rush to evacuate nationals from Sudan as violence escalates, after a week of fighting between the country’s armed forces and a paramilitary group complicates efforts to extract thousands of diplomats and expatriates.
3. SVB’s new owner fights to rebuild brand and stem outflows, as it attempts to rebuild the US technology bank that collapsed last month.
4. ING sues China’s biggest bank over copper trading losses, with the Amsterdam-based lender claiming $170mn in damages from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, according to a Hong Kong court filing seen by the Financial Times.
5. A lack of rain in Spain pushes olive oil prices to record levels, with analysts warning that a particularly dry summer could lead to even lower crop yields later this year.
The Big Read
France is Europe’s main atomic nation. With President Emmanuel Macron dialling up concerns across the continent over energy security, and pushing to have the first in a series of six new nuclear reactors up and running by 2035, the country has much work to do. To realise these projects will require an alignment of skills, organisational prowess and manpower that few western nations have been able to deliver in recent decades — all in the face of skilled worker shortages. Can France deliver a second nuclear era?
We’re also reading . . .
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Travel trouble: Business travel has not bounced back after the pandemic — and there is no guarantee it will, writes Pilita Clark. Here’s why.
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China’s back: The reopening of Asia’s biggest economy complicates efforts by western businesses to reduce reliance, writes Anne-Sylvaine Chassany.
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Behind the Money 🎧: Why can’t Apple leave China? Host Michela Tindera explores why it has become harder for Apple to do business in Beijing and why cutting ties will be extremely difficult.
Chart of the day
Temperatures have climbed to highs of 45C in Myanmar, 44.5C in India and 41.9C in China, according to the climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera, with Thailand and Laos breaking all-time high records. At least 13 people were reported to have died from heat stroke in Mumbai, India, while parts of Bangladesh endured power cuts as electricity demand surged in the unusual conditions. More than 100 weather stations in China recorded all-time high temperatures for April.
Take a break from the news
On the Weekend podcast presenter Lilah Raptopoulos speaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks about her new show Plays for the Plague Year, which asks us to remember, process and grieve the pandemic.
Additional contributions by Tee Zhuo and Emily Goldberg
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