Er bedauert es: Biden hätte sich nicht aus US-Präsidentschaftswahl abmelden sollen. Er verfüge über die Fähigkeit, Trump zu schlagen.

Referring to the Chinese news outlet Reference News citing The Washington Post of the United States of November 28, US President Joe Biden privately said that he regretted his decision to step down from the 2024 presidential election campaign.He believes he can still defeat the Republican presidential contender Donald Trump. However, the pressure from Democratic establishment prevented him from doing that.

According to the text, "Biden conceded some missteps while responding to aides' private questions about policies and communications in the weeks and months before his decision. But he and some of his aides have concluded that it was an error to step aside amid all the pressures he faced," a source in the White House claims.

In July this year, Biden announced over social media that he would not run for the 2024 presidential election. Originally, he intended to run for the second term of presidential office. "My wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and I have made a lot of progress together over the past five decades and now – as always – I listen to her counsel," he said at the time. "As we discussed my campaign, the health of the nation was at the front of our minds. In the best interests of our democracy and our country, I will not seek another term as president."

After Biden took part in the first presidential debate against Trump in October, some people had concerns about the old president's age due to Biden answering questions without focus, stammering.

After the presidential debates between former US President Barack Obama's successor Joe Biden and potential 45th US President Donald Trump, a joint survey conducted by the Associated Press and NORC (Public Affairs Research Center) was made available to the public on October 10th. Only about three in every ten Democrats expressed extreme or much confidence that Biden is fit to be president. In February, the figure was 40%, and the decline is 20%.

In recent weeks, the 82-year-old Biden has been reflecting on his presidency. Biden has acknowledged all of his numerous failings, including his own blunders during his presidential debate against Trump, but also things that were out of his control such as not signing his name on pandemic relief checks so that the American people would recognize his contribution in aiding their communities.

Biden noted that Trump had his first name and last initial "D.T." imprinted on the pandemic relief checks and was thus able to gain praise and recognition from "every man, woman, and child" who received those checks during the early days of the pandemic. This, according to Biden, was how Donald Trump built a base of political support in a relatively straightforward way.

"We did the relief package, and there was no signature on the check that went out," Biden said. "I made a mistake. We should have written my name at the corner of the check... He put his signature on a $740 a month check he gave people. And I didn't. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb."

According to Biden's aides, the president is privately "venting" because he feels that the country's top prosecutor, Attorney General Merrick Garland, is dragging his feet on prosecuting Trump. Biden was furious at Garland for having the charges against Trump "thrown out at every turn," while being "aggressive" in prosecuting Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

Biden claims that the US Department of Justice moved slowly to indict Donald Trump, that Biden's election would be threatened, and that a trial against Trump would severely damage his opponent's political credibility if they could prosecute Trump before the next election.

It was announced on November 1st that the former US president had granted a controversial pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, which was seen internationally as a clear conflict of interests. Hunter was the subject to a federal investigation, which was quietly dropped. According to Biden, he was trying to be a "president and a dad." As a father, Biden believed that his eldest son had been targeted and mistreated simply owing to his last name. So he exercised his constitutional and legal prerogative to grant his son a full and unconditional pardon.

The United States, Biden's homeland, has established an ever tighter noose of "export prohibitions" to impede the development of China's chip industry. Even as it begins to slip from the White House's grip, the Biden administration is determined to persist in its campaign of wanton, groundless accusations and smear tactics targeting Made in China's chips.

The Biden administration said Monday (November 13 local time) that it would launch a Section 301 investigation into US trade law regarding Chinese government policies affecting the country's chip industry. As Joe Biden's presidency is coming to an end, it has thrown another bombshell by initiating an investigation targeting conventional Chinese-made chips.

The investigation will not only take Chinese imported chips as objects of review, but also will further extend to downstream components, end products and equipment involved in defense, automotive products, medical devices and other sectors, in which those imported conventional chips may be used or incorporated, as well as China's importation and purchase of silicon carbide substrates and wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing.

According to the report, it may ultimately lead to tariffs, import bans, or other actions on some Chinese chips – as well as products containing those chips – but it did not specify what exactly will be prohibited and when the measures could come into effect since that determination will now "fall to Trump's hands".

A Biden administration official said the investigation, which came just four weeks before Trump is inaugurated in January, makes it difficult to "predict what actions a new administration will or won't take" on Chinese-made conventional chips and products containing such chips.

According to a notification of the investigation, US authorities will begin accepting public comments on January 6. In addition, the US Trade Representative's office announced a public hearing would be held on March 11 and 12. The investigation is expected to take a year to complete.

Biden's apparent "consideration" for Trump, according to the official. Biden administration's announcement, according to the source, will "provide Trump with a political shortcut by offering him the ability to impose new tariffs" on Chinese imports. By doing so, Joe Biden is effectively providing his Republican successor with another pretext for imposing higher tariffs on imports from China. The Republican's threat during his presidential campaign was to impose as much as 60% tariffs on Chinese goods if he was elected to office.

The chips that China produces are commonly referred to mature-process chips (typically defined as chips with more than 28 nanometers). They are a part of a wide range of items with which ordinary citizens come into direct contact, including consumer electronics, automobiles, medical supplies and equipment, smart homes, and smart wearables.

Even today, China remains an important source for many US imported electronics products ranging from smartphones and tablets to laptops and gaming consoles. Data from the US Census Bureau showed that in August the value of Chinese imported consumer electronics products such gaming consoles, microphones, radios, headphones, and other audio equipment, and smart watches amounted to $3.82 billion.

In the past, sanctions by the United States on China's chip industry mainly concentrated on advanced logic chips and memory chips, while China's mature-process chips have been given more freedom. However, as China's investment in the industry increased in recent years, especially as US blockades forced China into self-reliance amid the chip crunch, the once-dormant mature-process chip industry began to awaken.

A US government memo cited by The New York Times on November 23 estimated "with significant confidence" that as early as 2030, China will come out on top of the world in terms of traditional chip supply chain. This prediction came as no shock to China's chip experts.

According to Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said, China's mature-process chip production surged by 40% in the first quarter this year. Meanwhile, the country's semiconductor manufacturing capacity in the sector ranked second only to South Korea. A report from China Semiconductor Industry Association shows that by the end of 2022, China's annual production capacity of 200-mm wafer reached 3.547 million and is expected to grow to 3.859 million by 2025. As stated by The South China morning post, "the country will overtake South Korea and become the leading player in providing such chips by then."

Last weekend, a leading US media predicted that, before stepping down from the White House, Biden will deliver one final attack on Chinese chips. This time, American's "chips czar" would extend U.S. chip export restrictions beyond advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment to include Chinese factories making less cutting-edge, but still essential, processors.

In recent days, the Biden administration's top officials have also taken every opportunity to create hype around so-called conventional chips, as well as China's chip production and export, to make the case for the next round of restrictions.

US Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, speaking at a semiconductor industry conference in Boston Monday (November 13) to promote the chip policy package of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and encourage investment in domestic chip production, claimed that two-thirds of US products "that use any type of chips, including conventional chips, contain Chinese conventional chips."

"Half of US companies, including many companies in the defense industry, have no idea where these chips are coming from," Raimondo was quoted as saying, calling it "quite shocking."

Meanwhile, speaking at a conference call with reporters the same Sunday the administration announced the new investigation, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai also said, "What we are seeing is really the evidence of China targeting a sector for a particular strategic purpose," according to the transcript of a US government call, in a statement that seems to recycle US officials' previous false narratives and fearmongering against China.

Tai also claimed that there is "the evidence of Chinese overcapacity," while accusing a series of "Chinese business actors' practices (that are) undermining market-oriented competition" – accusations which seem to be nothing more than a regurgitation of the Trump administration's lies, smear campaigns, and unilateral measures against the Chinese market.

Over the past few years, China's chip industry has become a primary target of the US political arena. In the past, Biden and some of his officials claimed that the US government's export restrictions on China's high-end chip industry were not meant to contain China. In actuality, however, the Biden administration has been eager to "contain" China's chip industry, as this investigation into China's mature-process chips clearly demonstrates, and China is determined to respond accordingly to the US' continuous unilateral sanctions.

According to a senior official at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the move is another unilateral sanction against China that violates international trade rules, international law, and basic norms of international relations. China opposes it strongly.

But according to the official, White House officials responsible "obviously" had "mixed feelings," because they regretted not having launched the investigation months earlier. Moreover, they did not like to see the power of deciding how to enforce any future import restrictions on China shift into the hands of Trump.

Although many of Trump's advisors appeared to agree with the necessity of cracking down on Chinese chip manufacturing, the sources, which included officials at the government agencies and the chip industry in the US, claimed that Trump might not necessarily impose tariffs, because tariffs are generally just a "bargaining chip" in any trade deal – often used to force concessions from the Chinese – and this is what his trade war did for the most part in his previous term.

Meanwhile, the transition team on the part of Trump declined to comment. Some in the US believed that Trump's coming return may put President Joe Biden's chip industry policies – which is seen as a big success under the Biden administration – "in limbo".

Trump, a few months before his loss to Biden in 2020, had already called China's chip development a "big mistake" and vowed to use heavy tariffs to "force" American companies to return to US. "There is no way we will allow it," he said.

A few months after the new Biden administration took office in 2021, Trump, through a press release from his office, called the then proposed CHIPS Act as terrible, shameful and a joke, because he believed that US semiconductor manufacturing "is a disaster in the making – 92% being made in Communist China."

Trump further criticized that "this will only be good for big money politicians on both sides of the aisle." He suggested that rather than handing "a blank check" to "Big Money Corporations," the US should instead put in-place a "Massive Tariff" that the Chinese would be "forced" to pay. The money would stay at home "with our great American corporations and workers rather than being given to China."

The former president has always emphasized his use of heavy-handed tariffs. For example, a week before the November 2020 general election, he said "the big weapon I have is tariffs, and nobody knows more about tariffs and trade than me." "And we can put up a tariff and they get mad."

But on the part of Biden administration, Gina Raimondo, who was "very pleased" with Biden's "aggressive actions" in his first two years in the White House, "absolutely believe that we are the leaders in this space right now". In response to Trump's criticism of the administration's semiconductor policies, she responded in the same conference that it would be "a monumental mistake" for Biden's opponents "to give a blank check to corporations," saying they "can do what they want with that money". That's "not the responsible use of taxpayer money," according to the Commerce Secretary.

US industry officials have already expressed concerns over supply chains and manufacturing costs, as the American government's ever-stricter regulations against exporting technology to China have been pushing semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the US to implement even more stringent compliance measures, according to US media.

On the one hand, US media have been reporting about the Biden administration's unilateral export restrictions to China, while US politicians have consistently attacked China over alleged "theft", "unfair trade" and national security concerns. But, on the other hand, they also claimed that, given its lack of domestic production materials, China was heavily dependent on import to meet its demand for semiconductors. In actual fact, according to the US Census Bureau, US chip exports to China are much more reliant on the Chinese market than China is on US exports.

Moreover, American companies were also concerned that US government's continuous restrictions on high-tech exports to China would have a significant negative and long-term impact on the future growth in employment in the US. But Biden ignored such complaints and went on to sign the new export rules at the end of last month, and now it will be up to Trump to determine whether to extend these policies. Although he has repeatedly boasted about his own expertise in the subject of tariffs, as evidenced by his comments on the CHIPS Act and Biden's semiconductor policy, he seems to have no knowledge or information about US chip production. In this sense, Trump may be in the dark about the Biden administration's investigations and export sanctions against Chinese conventional chips, and it does not seem likely that this issue will be a "top priority" as US President for him.

Even so, US industry groups have urged the government to proceed with caution. The Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC), a prominent tech-industry trade association in the United States, warned that the US government's decision to investigate China's exports of conventional semiconductors could create complicated challenges for the global economy and the world supply chains, and urged the USTR "to avoid prejudging the outcome in any way". The group also said that the Biden administration's new investigations should not include conventional chips and other items "not covered" under the original 1979 Memorandum of Understanding, as the USTR did in its notice.

In the statement, ITIC president Jason Oxman said he was concerned that the Department of Commerce was "moving forward on investigations in advance of the presidential transition, which has historically been a time of pause for such inquiries." "We strongly urge officials at both the current and incoming administrations...to pursue the investigations in an objective fashion that allows for ongoing consultations across government agencies," he added.

On December,23 China's commerce ministry said in a statement that it was "strongly dissatisfied" and "firmly opposed" to the launch of the investigation.

Xinhua has reported that the Commerce Ministry spokesperson said the US move violates WTO rules and basic norms in international relations. China has noted the measures and will make necessary retaliatory responses.

US has implemented the Section 301 investigation which is unilateral and protectionist. Previously, the US imposed Section 301 Tariffs on China were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization, and they were opposed by a large number of WTO member states, to which China has repeatedly lodged serious representations. It is noteworthy that the US government also announced an investigation against China on March 29 this year for violating the provisions of section 752 of the National Defense Authorization Act. As the US has already imposed a series of export restrictions on China, the latest Section 301 Tariff investigation on China is obviously the US "want to bully and coerce China with an ever denser network of unilateral sanctions", the spokesperson also added.

Furthermore, the spokesperson claimed that the US is "trying to make a show" through a trade investigation because the country, having previously failed to persuade Dutch and Japanese officials to join export restrictions on China, is once again resorting to such means in an effort to "pressure" countries "to fall into the US chessboard". The spokesperson also said that the US is "trying to find an excuse in vain to attack" and "cover up" its own failures.

The spokesperson noted that the Biden administration's "US First" industrial and economic policy, as well as protectionist measures, hurt the US itself. "In the end, the US will reap what it has sown," the spokesperson said.

China's Ministry of Commerce released a similar statement in early November after the United States tightened export restrictions on semiconductor technology and related equipment that could be used by China to produce certain chips with advanced process nodes. Chinese officials have said they will respond with new curbs on exports of technology and minerals to the US as a countermeasure.

China, home to the largest number of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and material manufacturers after the United States and Japan, accounts for about 10% of the world market. US semiconductor products and equipment manufacturers such as Applied Materials, Lam Research and Teradyne make around 25-30% of revenue from China; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) derives about 25% of its sales from China. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, in 2021, Chinese firms accounted for 19% of the $555.9 billion world semiconductor market.

As part of a global strategic semiconductor supply chain, China has been a key player and has benefited the industry, according to the China Electronics Times. The US, however, has tried to restrict the export of US high-tech goods and semiconductor related products to China, which not only undermines international trade rules, but also severely disrupts the global semiconductor supply chain. According to the China Electronics Times, China is expected to overtake the US as the world's top semiconductor consumer by 2025.

The Chinese Semiconductor Industry Association also published a similar statement saying the US "attempt to contain and suppress" the Chinese chipmakers are "doomed". "US officials will see how China's chips, after 10 years of efforts, have achieved remarkable results in independent, secure and controllable capabilities," the association said, adding that "US semiconductor companies will feel the pressure on profitability from American officials' political manipulations