White House: Chinese allegations against Micron ‘baseless’

The White House on Wednesday condemned China for blacklisting imports of memory chips from the U.S-based company Micron, but it cautioned that Beijing’s sanctions would not derail Washington’s efforts to improve communication between the two nuclear-armed powers. 

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Beijing’s allegations that imports of Micron’s chips pose a national security risk to China are “baseless,” and he said the move is a reaction to a joint statement by Group of Seven (G7) leaders on Saturday coordinating to push back on coercive economic measures by the PRC. 

“This action is clearly an attempt to undermine the strong stance that was taken by the G7 against economic coercion,” Kirby said in a briefing with reporters, referring to the summit of world leaders in Japan attended by President Biden over the weekend.

The ban on Micron chips came on Sunday after the Cyberspace Administration of China reportedly issued a report saying a review of Micron’s products showed “serious network security risks, which pose significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain, affecting China’s national security.”

Kirby said that China’s actions were baseless and amounted to economic coercion. 

“It came just one day after the G7 leaders issued their first ever statement on economic resilience and security,” he said. “… So, how do they respond to criticism over economic coercion? With economic coercion. Again, no basis in fact here.”

Still, Kirby added that Beijing’s move to block the U.S. chipmaker from the Chinese market would not impact the administration’s efforts to improve communication with Beijing.

“We don’t believe that that should be the case,” Kirby said. “The discussions and the lines of communication that we’re trying to keep open, remain open.”

President Biden on Saturday said at the G7 summit he expected a “thaw very shortly” in the relationship with China. The administration has said they are working to reschedule a trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing that was canceled following the discovery in late February of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart in Vienna earlier this month, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are expected to travel to China, though it’s unclear when.