Chip export controls absent from China-US summit

If the China-US summit is anything to go by, Beijing no longer sees getting the US to ease its chip controls as a top priority.

In a May 15 interview, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that the two sides (Bloomberg):

• "Did not talk about chip export controls at the meeting."

That may seem surprising given that China has spent years pressing the US to relax restrictions – but China has actually been restricting imports of US chips of late.

• In July 2025, Beijing blocked imports of Nvidia H20s, citing cybersecurity concerns, after Washington greenlit their sale to China.
• The Trump administration later approved sales of Nvidia's higher-end H200 chips to China – yet no H200s have made it in, reportedly because Beijing has blocked them.

Get smart: Beijing is hellbent on technological self-reliance, particularly in areas where domestic alternatives already exist, even if those alternatives remain inferior for now.

• US export controls advance that objective by forcing Chinese companies to work with Chinese chips.

Get smarter: Beijing is buying time for domestic firms to gradually close the technology gap.

• In the meantime, Chinese officials are willing to tolerate existing US controls as long as Washington does not dramatically escalate them overnight.