China Outpacing U.S. Defense Industrial Base, China’s Semiconductor Industry Advances despite U.S. Export Controls

 China’s defense industrial base is operating on a wartime footing, while the U.S. defense industrial base is largely operating on a peacetime footing. Overall, the U.S. defense industrial ecosystem lacks the capacity, responsiveness, flexibility, and surge capability to meet the U.S. military’s production and warfighting needs. Unless there are urgent changes, the United States risks weakening deterrence and undermining its warfighting capabilities. China is heavily investing in munitions and acquiring high-end weapons systems and equipment five to six times faster than the United States. China is also the world’s largest shipbuilder and has a shipbuilding capacity that is roughly 230 times larger than the United States. One of China’s large shipyards, such as Jiangnan Shipyard, has more capacity than all U.S. shipyards combined.

China’s Semiconductor Industry Advances despite U.S. Export Controls
Paul Triolo stresses that the Chinese semiconductor industry is pursuing a multipart strategy to respond to U.S. choke points. China prefers connectivity with global industry but is focusing resources on technologies already under pressure or likely to face restrictions.

As with any complex industry, and the semiconductor industry arguably has the world’s most complex technology and geographically dispersed supply chains, the devil will always be in the details.