Apple ‘playing with fire’ buying iPhone 14 parts from Chinese supplier

Apple is reportedly wanting to make use of chips from a controversial Chinese language government-linked firm in its new iPhone 14 — and several other US lawmakers are up in arms. 

Following a report in South Korean media that Apple deliberate to make use of chips from Yangtze Reminiscence Applied sciences Co. in its new lineup of iPhones, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) blasted the corporate for “enjoying with fireplace.” 

“If [Apple] strikes ahead, it will likely be topic to scrutiny prefer it has by no means seen from the federal authorities,” Rubio raged to the Financial Times. “We can’t permit Chinese language corporations beholden to the Communist social gathering into our telecommunications networks and tens of millions of People’ iPhones.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) likewise advised the paper that “YMTC has in depth ties to the Chinese language Communist social gathering and army.” 

“Apple will successfully be transferring information and knowhow to YMTC that can supercharge its capabilities and assist the CCP obtain its nationwide targets,” McCaul added.

Critics on each side of the aisle have painted YMTC as being a nationwide safety danger, arguing that the corporate is affiliated and backed by the Chinese language authorities. Additionally they say the corporate could have violated a US technology export ban by promoting chips to sanctioned phone-maker Huawei.  

In July, a bipartisan group of senators together with Rubio, Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) described YMTC and different Chinese language chipmakers as a “rising risk” to American nationwide safety in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. They urged Raimondo so as to add the corporate to a commerce blacklist. 

“By failing so as to add YMTC to the Entity Record, the US Division of Commerce is permitting the PRC to use our technological sector and provide sanctioned events in China,” the Senators wrote, according to Reuters. 

Schumer has additionally raised issues about YMTC to Raimondo in personal, in accordance with the Monetary Occasions. 

Spokespeople for Apple, McCaul and Schumer didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. 

Rubio’s press secretary Ansley Bradwell advised The Publish: “We try to get extra info from Apple.”

Apple advised the Monetary Occasions that it didn’t use YMTC chips in any merchandise however that it was “evaluating sourcing from YMTC for Nand chips for use in some iPhones bought in China.” It additionally stated that each one person information saved on all of its chips is “absolutely encrypted.”

The spat over YMTC underscores Apple’s cozy relationship with China, which has manufactured the majority of its units for years and has additionally reportedly began enjoying a larger half of their design. 

At the same time as Apple has shifted some manufacturing to India and Vietnam, Chinese language workers and suppliers have performed an more and more giant function within the design of the brand new iPhone, the New York Times reported. 

Chinese language engineers “contributed advanced work and complex parts” together with “facets of producing design, audio system and batteries,” the newspaper reported. 

In the meantime, the US has appeared to cut back its dependance on Chinese language and Taiwanese chip producers by way of laws together with the “Chips and Science” act, which President Joe Biden signed into regulation in August. The measure seeks to subsidize dear chip manufacturing amenities within the US.