In Geopolitics This Week
China Already Fields 7-nanometre Chip Capabilities, The EU Increases Legal Pressure on the UK, Turkey Seeks Regional Support to Crush Rebel Groups in Syria, and other stories.
China Already Fields 7-nanometre Chip Capabilities
According to research conducted by TechInsights, the Chinese Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) has been producing chips based on a 7 nanometre process. If SMIC can scale up production volumes, it would reduce the leverage that US-aligned chipmakers have over China's own semiconductor industry going forward.
TechInsights' findings are important because the chip is more advanced than those SMIC had previously been reported as producing. The semiconductors built using 7-nanometer technology are well ahead of SMIC’s publicly-known 14nm technology. TechInsights reverse-engineered SMIC chips and found similarities with those produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The discovery comes as China continues to build out its own homegrown semiconductor production, with SMIC leading the way.
SMIC is critical to China’s ability to produce chips domestically as the US attempts to disrupt the country’s tech advancements. The US has barred the unlicensed sale of equipment used to fabricate 10nm and smaller semiconductors to SMIC. In light of SMIC’s advancements, Washington will likely apply even more pressure in order to limit SMIC's ability to increase production volume. SMIC's potential use of advanced DUV lithography machines for 7 nm chips — a technology that would allow China to develop near cutting-edge chips — would make it more difficult for the United States to affect Chinese semiconductor production, and therefore be an unwelcome development from Washington’s perspective.
The EU Increases Legal Pressure on the UK
The European Union has launched legal action against the United Kingdom for failing to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol. The move follows the passage of a bill through the UK’s House of Commons that would allow London to unilaterally scrap most of the protocol.
The European Commission already launched two separate infringement procedures on June 15 after the London introduced the Protocol bill to the House of Commons. The UK government signed the Protocol under Prime Minister Boris Johnson's leadership, but the political situation in Downing Street since then has changed and London now considers the Protocol a threat to the Good Friday Agreement and believes the Protocol should be amended or renegotiated.
Now, the European Commission is launching four new infringement procedures on the grounds that the UK has failed to fulfil the obligations it undertook when it agreed to the protocol. Specifically, the European Commission charged Britain with failing to comply with customs requirements for goods moving from Northern Ireland to Britain, EU rules on sales tax for e-commerce, and not transposing EU rules on duties. The European Commission has given the UK government two months to respond.
Northern Ireland is in the EU single market for goods, meaning imports from the rest of the United Kingdom are subject to customs declarations. The arrangement was set to avoid reinstating border controls between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the United Kingdom arriving in Northern Ireland and challenged the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice to weight in on the Northern Island Protocol.
Turkey Seeks Regional Support to Crush Rebel Groups in Syria
Turkey has been in the midst of a flurry of activity in the region as its military prepares for a major offensive in Northern Syria. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan travelled to Tehran for a trilateral summit on Syria with the leaders of Iran and Russia. The talks were a part of the Astana Process, a framework created in 2017 to implement a cease-fire in Syria, and all three leaders are expected to discuss Turkey’s upcoming military operation in northern Syria.
Both the Iranian and the Russian governments urged Turkish officials to reconsider the planned military operation in northern Syria. Russia’s envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, said his government was seeking to persuade Turkey to “try to find a solution through negotiations and dialogue.” Similarly, the Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei publicly cautioned against Turkey’s planned military incursion, saying it will harm the region. Nevertheless, Erdogan vowed to carry out a military assault against US-backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria, despite statements of disapproval from Moscow and Tehran.
Erdogan signalled that all three countries participating in the Astana Process were in agreement to push back against the activity of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People's Protection Units (YPG), two militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq that are supported by Washington. After the Summit, the Turkish President called on the United States to leave northern Syria, arguing that a US withdrawal would weaken terror activity in the region. Erdogan claimed that US officers were still actively training members of the YPG and accused the group of “sucking the oil wells in the east of the river Euphrates” to finance their operations.