China goes all in the US trade fight, with Qualcomm in the Crosshairs

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Yoko Kubota, the Wall Street Journal 4 min Read 11 Oct 2025, 07:00 is the top market regulator of China, said on Friday that he had launched an investigation into Qualcomm due to suspected violation of the country’s antimonopoly law. (Reuters) Summary Beijing’s move against the San Diego Chip Giant is the latest in a two-day barrage of actions aimed at US Beijing-with the rare performance restrictions and a series of actions aimed at the US chip industry is Beijing a full-scale offensive at Washington and Chinese Xi Jinping. The latest to face the Ire van Beijing: Qualcomm, one of the most important semiconductors in the US. China’s top market regulator said on Friday that it had launched an investigation into Qualcomm due to suspected violation of the country’s antimonopoly law. The investigation is linked to Qualcomm’s acquisition of Autotalks, an Israeli beginning, the regulator said. Qualcomm did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In two days, Beijing unleashed a barrage of actions that threatened to derail a fragile status quo with Washington on trade and other issues, with a specific focus on semiconductors. China announced new restrictions on rare earth on Thursday, especially noted that licenses related to certain types of chips are granted from case to case. Also on Thursday, Beijing added about a dozen organizations to its ‘unreliable entity list’, including Techinsights, a Canada-based semiconductor technology research firm that released reports on chip development efforts by China’s Huawei Technologies. China went beyond semiconductors. On Thursday, Beijing also said it would require licenses to export certain lithium batteries and some equipment and materials used to make it. Then, Friday, Beijing said he intends to impose a special port fee on US ships docking at Chinese ports, and retaliation against the Trump administration’s move to charges on Chinese ships. Beijing has used government investigations into US businesses to put pressure on the US, which has gradually imposed an ever -growing world of export restrictions and rates on Chinese goods over the years. American Chip enterprises examined especially in Beijing. Last month, China’s anti -trussor regulator said a preliminary investigation found that Nvidia had violated the country’s antimonopoly law in connection with an acquisition completed in 2020. Slides are at the heart of the US -China technology ripition. Their central role in artificial intelligence, military equipment and other areas with national security and economic importance made them the locus of tension between the world’s two superpowers. Washington and Beijing, who have been in controversial discussions about rates and technology for months, are preparing for a meeting between their two leaders. Beijing is looking for the US to remove rates, as well as different technology restrictions that have limited Chinese businesses and the broader economy. Qualcomm is very reliant on China for its business and is one of the most exposed to China under American businesses. Nearly half of its turnover comes from China in fiscal 2024, the latest full year for which data is available. The San Diego-based Chip Company said in a recent filing that “a significant part of our business is concentrated in China, and that the risks of such concentration are exacerbated by US/China trade and national security tensions.” The company, which makes cellphone and car chips, has a history of a chess piece in the tension of the US China. In 2018, China did not approve the planned purchase of Dutch Chip Manufacturer NXP in time, leading Qualcomm to scrap the agreement from the more resulting casualties of the US-China trade decline. At the time, the US and China complained about the trade and rates during Trump’s first term. Qualcomm was in Chinese regulators’ cross chairs before Trump first came to office. In 2015, Qualcomm agreed to pay $ 975 million to Beijing and review its licensing practices in China to seize accusations of violating the local antitrust law. It was one of China’s most powerful moves against a foreign company at the time. Over the years, the top managers of Qualcomm have met with Beijing’s top officials in an effort to show goodwill and maintain positive ties. For two years straight, including this March, Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, was one of the handful of foreign business leaders selected to meet Xi in Beijing, on the sidelines of an annual meeting of foreign managers and Chinese policymakers. China’s state administration for market regulation, the antimonopoly regulator, said Qualcomm failed to make clear how the acquisition of autotalks would affect the market. After abandoning the agreement in 2024, Qualcomm managed to acquire the Israeli Motor-Chip designer in June this year, part of a greater effort to increase his presence in the emerging communication field between cars and their environment. Write to Yoko Kubota on [email protected], catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Trade War #China Read Next Story