Written on May 21, 2019, this article argues that the objective behind Chinese semiconductor firms’ attempts to acquire memory companies was not merely business expansion, but the acquisition of high-performance radar technology and advanced technologies with military applications.
Through the cases of Toshiba and Elpida, it highlights both the destruction of semiconductor market pricing and the wider national security implications.

2019-05-21
The reason the U.S. government has repeatedly blocked Tsinghua Unigroup’s acquisition of American memory companies is that it fears China acquiring high-performance radar capability.

The chapter I published on 2017-08-19 under the title, “The reason bankrupt Elpida fell into management crisis was also that a Taiwanese semiconductor syndicate dumped memory on the market below cost,” is now in the real-time best ten.
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
All emphasis in the text other than the heading is mine.
Why the “Qingbang” grew gigantic.
It is said that standing at its top is Winbond CEO Chiao Yu-chiao of the Taiwanese memory company Winbond.
There are two reasons why the semiconductor syndicate “Qingbang” grew gigantic.
One is the exploitation of rights to circuit prototypes called “photomasks” for chips outsourced by companies around the world to Taiwanese semiconductor foundries.
Under Taiwanese law, these become the property of the factory, so no matter how much Japan invests in semiconductor circuit design, similar products immediately begin circulating.
The other is that Taiwanese semiconductor factories accept low-cost mass production of chips, while passing off good products as defective ones and selling them on the black market to create slush funds for the Qingbang.
Depending on market conditions, they also sell chips at extraordinary prices to manipulate market prices.
The reason bankrupt Elpida fell into management crisis was also that the Taiwanese semiconductor syndicate dumped memory on the market below cost and destroyed market prices.
Now that Qingbang has become a semiconductor syndicate, its target is not limited to Toshiba Memory, but also includes Toshiba’s radar technology itself.
In the U.S. JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program that produced the F35, the U.S. government has announced that it suffered damage from “Chinese spies.”
The details have not been made public, but I also obtained internal information that semiconductor-related technology connected to the flight controller was leaked to China through subcontractors of the primary contractor.
Qingbang was also involved in this.
Recently, China has been advertising a Chinese-made fighter, the “TJ31,” said to be a copy of the F35, to countries unable to purchase weapons from the United States, but there are rumors that its engine performance and radar technology are inferior to those of the original F35.
What China absolutely wants in order to close that technological gap is world top-class engine and radar technology, and Toshiba possesses radar technology ranked among the best in the world.
The reason the U.S. government has repeatedly blocked Tsinghua Unigroup’s acquisition of American memory companies is that it fears China acquiring high-performance radar capability.
If a high-precision radar were installed in a Chinese-made copy of the F35 fighter, China’s reckless behavior could no longer be stopped.
The development of high-precision radar requires processing data through high-speed input and output, and that requires advanced memory technology.
That is the greatest reason the United States has refused China’s acquisition of memory companies.
This article will continue.
As I reread this article, I recalled the extremely cold reporting by the Asahi Shimbun and NHK toward Toshiba when it had fallen into a management crisis over the accounting scandal at the major American nuclear power company Toshiba had acquired, reporting that looked down on Toshiba as though it were a zombie company.
In other words, I became convinced that it is no exaggeration at all to say that they are Chinese agents.