Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, visited a memory chip plant in the city of Wuhan earlier this year. In a white lab coat, he made an unexpectedly sentimental remark, comparing a computer chip to a human heart: “No matter how big a person is, he or she can never be strong without a sound and strong heart”.
China’s ambitions to be a leader in next-generation technology, such as artificial intelligence, rest on whether or not it can design and manufacture cutting-edge chips, and Mr Xi has pledged $150bn to build up the sector.
But China’s plan has alarmed the US, and chips, or semiconductors, have become the central battlefield in the trade war between the two countries. And it is a battle in which China has a very visible Achilles heel.
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