The U.S. is "not in the business” of aiding rival chip-producing countries, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said, as the White House steps up efforts to deny China access to American technology.
"It’s one thing if you’re going to have competition,” Emanuel said Monday in an interview. "The other thing is if you actually help the competitor compete,” he added. "We’re not in the business of funding and supporting and doing the hard work and research to fund you to compete against us.”
His comments came after the White House last week included dozens of Chinese technology companies on a so-called Entity List, making it almost impossible for them to procure critical foreign components and ratcheting up a trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies. A spokesman for China’s Embassy in Washington called the move a "reckless suppression” of Chinese enterprises.