Intel Apologizes for Banning Chinese Components From Xinjiang Province per US Law

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China-U.S. conflict hits Intel

Intel
(Image credit: Intel)

Intel this week apologized for implementing a policy not to source anything from China's Xinjiang province and clarified that the rule was set to comply with the U.S. laws. But while Intel said sorry to its suppliers and clients in China, it does not look like the policy is going to be changed any time soon. 

The debate exploded after Intel sent a year-end letter to suppliers remarking that components made in Xinjiang should not be used in its products (which includes chips, PCs, SSDs, and many more items assembled in China). The note quickly attracted the attention of the nationalist media in the country and they caused a vocal backlash against Intel, according to the Financial Times. 

As a result, Intel had to apologize in China for implementing a policy not to source materials and components from Xinjiang, a region where systematic human rights violations of the ethnic Uyghur Muslim population take place, according to Human Rights Watch and other similar agencies based in Western countries. There are reports that forced labor is widely used in Xinjiang. The Chinese government consistently denies that the violations happen.  

Intel said that the policy was implemented to comply with the U.S. laws and was not the company's own point of view. However, the fate of the policy is unclear. "We apologize for the distress caused to our esteemed Chinese customers, partners and the general public," a statement from Intel said, reports Nikkei. 

The U.S. Senate recently passed legislation banning imports from Xinjiang, which means that Intel cannot import products with components sourced from Xinjiang to the U.S. As a result, while Intel had to apologize in China, it will still be unable to change the policy as it certainly wants to sell its products in the USA. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities say that the Xinjiang controversy was started by the U.S. as a part of the ongoing trade war with China.

Some of the Chinese commentators already called for the country to fine Intel for 'offending China.' "This company must abide by American laws but still wants to make money in China, we can’t replace them at the moment but we can fine them," the Financial Times quoted one Weibo commentator as saying. "Let's fine them billions at a time and use the money for R&D."

Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • -Fran-
    "We're sorry we can't take your money, because the bigger paying customer has a grief with you. We really don't care about human rights violations and only money, so let's make that clear, ok?"

    Or am I reading too much into it? XD

    Regards.
    Reply
  • agamar
    Oh, I think you read it right. I think that our largest corporations care nothing for people, only profit. They want all the best parts about being in a country with rule of law, morals, etc. but then send all the manufacturing to countries without any protections for employees or even empathy for what they are doing to people.
    Reply
  • jkflipflop98
    The best course for the USA right now would be a complete ban of everything and anything manufactured in China.

    Yeah, it would hurt like hell in the short term - but we'd be far stronger in the long term for it.
    Reply
  • Howardohyea
    this is so depressing, seriously why can't any countries just work together instead of attack each other?
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Howardohyea said:
    this is so depressing, seriously why can't any countries just work together instead of attack each other?

    Because : Human Nature.

    Also probably irreconcilable differences about the value, purpose and meaning of human life.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    -Fran- said:
    "We're sorry we can't take your money, because the bigger paying customer has a grief with you. We really don't care about human rights violations and only money, so let's make that clear, ok?"

    Or am I reading too much into it? XD

    Regards.

    A more cynical reader would see a request for changes in product Origin labeling.
    Reply
  • spongiemaster
    -Fran- said:
    "We're sorry we can't take your money, because the bigger paying customer has a grief with you. We really don't care about human rights violations and only money, so let's make that clear, ok?"

    Or am I reading too much into it? XD

    Regards.
    No, you just can't read to begin with. Intel is apologizing to suppliers here, not customers. Intel is giving them money, not taking money from them. Also, it makes no difference how much the US gov't (who isn't a supplier of Intel, so banning Chinese suppliers hurts them as a customer of Intel), buys from Intel, it's the US gov't. If they bought nothing from Intel, it would still be a ridiculously stupid move to give the gov't the finger and ignore their policies.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Co BIY said:
    A more cynical reader would see a request for changes in product Origin labeling.
    What do you mean?

    spongiemaster said:
    No, you just can't read to begin with. Intel is apologizing to suppliers here, not customers. Intel is giving them money, not taking money from them. Also, it makes no difference how much the US gov't (who isn't a supplier of Intel, so banning Chinese suppliers hurts them as a customer of Intel), buys from Intel, it's the US gov't. If they bought nothing from Intel, it would still be a ridiculously stupid move to give the gov't the finger and ignore their policies.
    "We're sorry we can't take your items, because the bigger paying customer has a grief with you. We really don't care about human rights violations and only money, so let's make that clear, ok?"

    Better?

    Regards.
    Reply
  • RobrK
    Glad I bought AMD!
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    A more cynical reader would see a request for changes in product Origin labeling.

    -Fran- said:
    What do you mean?

    Maybe the suppliers can get away with labeling changes, adding a clean middleman/middle-region, create some plausible deniability. Intel corporate is making it clear that "they" don't really have a problem with the slave-labor, "re-education" concentration camps, CCP horror-of-the-day. But they have to have some plausible deniability.

    (Perhaps this is too cynical. They could also be complying with a law of their headquarters country and have to create some face-saving groveling to calm the over-reactive vindictive CCP tyrants.)

    Dealing with the CCP in China is a complex moral conundrum that no one is dealing with well.

    If you don't take advantage of the opportunities to be had then your competition will. But everyone who watches knows that those advantages are related to the abuses. To do business in China is supporting the CCP. To buy goods made in China is supporting the CCP. Supporting the CCP is supporting genocide in Xinjiang, military aggression in the region, the death of free Hong Kong, COVID cover-ups, extra-national censorship, the disappearances of individual independent Chinese citizens, the erasure of Taiwan, etc. ...

    And to do otherwise costs and is hard.
    Reply