Beijing counterattack begins by banning Micron’s chip sales in China

Beijing counterattack begins by banning Micron’s chip sales in China. July. 05, 2018 07:44. by Ga-In Koo comedy9@donga.com.
China has banned Micron from selling its chips in China amid escalating trade tension between China and the United States. The ban came before the United States is set to impose tariffs on Chinese imported products Saturday.

The Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court on Monday ordered Micron to temporarily cease selling its chip products in China, according to Bloomburg. The order covers Micron's 26 chip products, including DRAM and NAND flash

memory chips. The U.S.-based chip maker earned more than half of its revenue from China last year.

The injuction order by a Chinese court was revealed by Taiwan-based chip maker and Micron's competition UMC. UMC, which is constructing DRAM production facility in partnership with China's state enterprise Fujian Jinhua, has been in a legal battle with Micron since last year over patent and trade secret infringement. In December last year, Micron filed a lawsuit against UMC in the District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging infringement on its DRAM patents and intellectual property rights. In response, UMC filed patent infringement lawsuits against Micron with the mainland China courts in January this year.

Some say the sales ban decision made in the largest chip market in the world suggests that the trade war between the United States and China has intensified in the IT field. Bloomberge reported that the United States earlier imposed sanctions against Chinese tech companies, including Huawei, ZTE and China Mobile, and U.S. mobile chipmaker Qualcomm had difficulty acquiring Dutch semiconductor company NXP as Chinese regulators delayed the approval of acquisition.