For China's leaders it's an extraordinary vulnerability, both because they're well aware that in case of a crisis they're likely to lose access to the most advanced chips. The US government over the past 10 years or so has been able to surgically cut China out of certain parts of the chip industry while keeping China dependent on many other types of chips. If China wants to progress technologically economically, they believe they've got to investigate production of semiconductors. And the challenge they face is that the Chinese government has been struggling to do so. They've been spending billions of dollars a year since 2014 to try to produce cutting edge chips domestically.
Today we’re bringing you an episode on chips. No, not potato chips. Kevin has been pitching an episode on the truly fascinating world of chips and semiconductors for quite a while, but our friends at the The Ezra Klein Show got to it first. This week on Hard Fork: Ezra Klein’s engrossing conversation with historian Chris Miller. It’s a must listen. Thank you to Ezra for beating us in our quest for a great chips episode.
We'll be back with our regularly scheduled tech coverage, with Kevin and Casey next week.