"In the morning, ZTE issued a statement saying that" it has learned that the US Department of Commerce has refused to activate the company. The company is comprehensively evaluating the possible impact of this incident on the company, communicating and responding with all parties. Meanwhile, ZTE suspended trading. When we explore its root causes, we have to realize that China's "lack of core" weakness.
Why did the United States impose an embargo on ZTE?
Bloomberg quoted a senior official from the Bureau of industrial security of the U.S. Department of Commerce as saying that "the decision against ZTE has nothing to do with the trade dispute, but one of the findings of an investigation." Unfortunately, the announcement time just makes people think it is related to trade disputes. This statement tries to get the whole event out of the background, but probably not many people will choose to believe it. Assuming it's really irrelevant, what's the matter with this survey?
We may need to adjust the time back to March 2016 because "ZTE is subject to export restrictions by the United States in violation of the U.S. sanctions against Iran". In June, August and November of that year, the U.S. Department of Commerce extended ZTE's temporary export license three times to suspend the implementation of the export ban. In March 2017, ZTE finally chose to plead guilty to a federal court in the United States, admitted its violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, and reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. government.
In the settlement agreement, ZTE not only paid $892360064 in criminal and civil fines, but also faced a suspended fine of $300 million to the Bureau of industry and security of the U.S. Department of Commerce. At that time, it was agreed that the final payment of this $300 million "depends on the company's compliance with the agreement in the next seven years and continuing to accept independent compliance supervision and audit.
After being subject to export restrictions in March 2016, ZTE replaced its new CEO in April of the same year, made major adjustments to the senior management team, established a new compliance management committee, reorganized the legal and compliance management department, and appointed an American lawyer as the chief export compliance officer. It can be said that ZTE has made great efforts to lift the ban.
But with the order, this effort seems to have been in vain. The reason for the US side is that according to the settlement agreement at that time, ZTE should have fired four executives and punished the remaining 35. But now the survey found that ZTE did not implement the punishment of 35 people except for firing four executives: even the bonus was paid as usual. In the view of the United States, this is unforgivable. American enterprises are prohibited from selling any electronic technology or communication components to ZTE for a period of seven years until March 13, 2025.
Alert: "lack of core" weakness
Why is the US ban so influential? Huawei took e company (Ericsson), N + a company (Nokia + Alcatel) and Z Company as competitors in the previous PPT, and pointed out their position as "industry leaders". It can be seen that although ZTE develops slowly, it still plays an important role in this market. In 2017, ZTE accounted for about 10% of the global telecom equipment market and about 30% of the Chinese telecom equipment market
ZTE's main businesses include base stations, optical communications and mobile phones. ZTE was terrified by the US ban, in large part because ZTE had the problem of insufficient chip self-sufficiency in several major application fields. At present, most of its baseband chips, RF chips, storage and optical devices come from the United States. Once the United States cuts off the supply of its components, ZTE will face double pressure from orders: old orders cannot be completed and new orders cannot be obtained.
So is there an alternative chip? ZTE, aware of its own problems, is also testing the corresponding chip on a small scale. However, the most difficult problem in the whole incident is that the self-sufficiency rate of base station chip is almost zero. Despite ZTE's efforts, the "maturity and high reliability of base station chips are different from consumer chips. It takes at least two years from trial to batch use". In the field of communication, missing two years may be "earth shaking and generous".
But this is not just a ZTE problem. ZTE's setback is more or less an example. The advantages of American manufacturers in the fields of high-performance Simulator Devices (including RF devices), FPGA, EDA tools and so on make the incalculable impact of power outage. No wonder, people began to realize that to replace imported chips on a large scale, they need to go out of PPT and go into every industry detail. Domestic should be self-improvement, otherwise, the soft rib of "lack of core" will only become a soft rib all the time.
Original address: https://www.eeboard.com/news/zhongxing-9/
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