China strikes a blow to the US chip company

“The review found that Micron products pose a serious cybersecurity risk, posing a significant security risk to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain, affecting China’s national security. China,” the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement.

CAC said, units operating critical information infrastructure will receive requests to stop procurement from Micron. According to China’s general definition of critical information infrastructure, the scope of application can include areas ranging from transportation to finance.

Micron has not yet commented on this news. China announced that it was conducting a review of Micron’s products from the end of March. At that time, the company said it was cooperating with the review agency and its business in China was still normal.

The results of the review and decision on Micron come amid a dispute between Washington and Beijing over chip technology. The US has imposed a series of bans on the export of chip technology to China and blacklisted many of Micron’s rivals such as Yangtze Memory Technologies.

The CAC did not specify the risks that Micron products may pose.

About 10% of Micron’s revenue comes from the Chinese market. It is unclear if the new decision will affect sales to non-Chinese companies in this market.

According to the analysis, most of Micron’s products are shipped to China to be sold to non-Chinese companies.

In November 2021, China imposed a regulation to protect critical information infrastructure, requiring infrastructure operators to comply with strict data security requirements.

China defines the concept of “materiality” very broadly, such as public communications and transportation, but does not specify what types of companies or businesses are covered.