China opposes U.S. restrictions on shipping of AI chips

China firmly opposed the U.S. government's latest restrictions on shipping high-end artificial intelligence chips used in high-performance computing to the nation, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The comments came after U.S. chip designer Nvidia Corp said, on Wednesday, that U.S. officials told it to stop exporting two top computing chips for AI work to China. The specifically targeted chips are A100 and H100 chips, which are designed to speed up machine learning tasks.

Shu Jueting, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Commerce, said at a media conference in Beijing that the U.S. has continuously abused export control measures to restrict the export of semiconductor items to China for a period of time.

Such practices deviate from the principle of fair competition and violate international economic and trade rules, Shu said.

The moves not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, but also seriously affect the interests of U.S. enterprises, hinder international scientific and technological exchanges, and economic and trade cooperation, Shu said. They will also affect the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain, as well as the recovery of the world economy, Shu added.