(Reuters) – The United States asked South Korea to urge its chipmakers not to fill any market gap in China if Beijing bans memory chipmaker Micron from selling chips, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The United States made the request as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol prepares to travel to Washington on Monday, the newspaper reported, according to four people familiar with the talks.
China’s cyberspace regulator Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in March that it would conduct a cybersecurity review of products sold in the country by Micron. In a response, Micron said that it is cooperating with the Chinese government and that its operations in China are normal.
Washington asked Seoul to encourage Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to hold back from boosting sales to China if Micron is banned as a result of the investigation, the report added, citing people familiar with the situation.
The U.S. has imposed a series of export controls on chipmaking technology to China for fear it could be used to produce chips for military applications. It has blacklisted a number of China’s largest chip firms, including Micron rival Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
