According to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal, a research institute in China has bought American-made semiconductors at least a dozen times since 2020. The advanced computer chips came from companies such as Intel and Nvidia.
The Journal review of research papers published by the state-run China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) found at least 34 papers over the past decade referenced using American semiconductors in the research. The chips were used in a range of ways, including analyzing data and generating algorithms.
Many of the chips were bought by the institute’s laboratory studying computational fluid dynamics. The field, while broad, includes the modeling of nuclear explosions.
The Journal semiconductor report was notable because the research institute was one of the first institutions in China to be put on a U.S. export blacklist back in 1997. The point of the blacklist is to prevent the use of any U.S. products for atomic-weapons research by foreign powers. The institute was able to obtain the chips from resellers in China.
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