What happened
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning warned the United States on Friday against imposing additional export controls on semiconductors. Speaking at a regular press briefing, Mao said Beijing has consistently opposed what it described as the abuse of export control measures, arguing that they disrupt global industrial and supply chains and serve no party’s interests.
The warning comes amid a widening scandal involving Nvidia and its former CEO Jensen Huang, who resigned on Thursday. Huang has admitted to an affair with Alice Huang, a former senior executive at Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. The two are not related.
U.S. officials have circulated intelligence allegations that Alice Huang was an asset for China’s Ministry of State Security and had grown close to Jensen Huang. According to reporting by the New York Times, President Trump was briefed on the intelligence about a year ago and decided not to act on it. Beijing has rejected the spy allegations, calling them a pretext for imposing a technological blockade to stop China’s advancement in artificial intelligence.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick faces criticism from lawmakers over whether his ties to Chinese companies and friendship with Jensen Huang contributed to insufficient federal oversight of billions of dollars in Nvidia AI chip sales. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on CNBC that the Treasury, Defense, State departments and the U.S. trade representative all supported adding Megaspeed to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which would restrict access to U.S. technology products. Bessent said Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security holds authority over the listing decision.
A U.S. official said Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on December 10. House Speaker Mike Johnson said there is a growing consensus in Congress for further tightening chip export controls to China. The Commerce Department did not respond to a request for comment.
