In a sprawling factory in eastern Shanghai, where marshy plains have long since been converted into industrial parks, China’s most advanced chipmaker has been hard at work testing the limits of U.S. authority.

上海浦东曾经的沼泽地早已被改造为工业园区，在这里一座庞大的工厂里，中国最先进的芯片制造商一直在努力检验美国权威的极限。

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, or SMIC, is manufacturing chips with features less than one-15,000th of the thickness of a sheet of paper. The chips pack together enough computing power to create advancements like artificial intelligence and 5G networks.

中芯国际制造有限公司（“中芯国际”）正在生产的芯片光刻精度不到头发丝的万分之一。这种芯片上集成着推动人工智能和5G网络等发展所需的计算能力。

It’s a feat that has been achieved by just a few companies globally — and one that has landed SMIC in the middle of a crucial geopolitical rivalry. U.S. officials say such advanced chip technology is central not just to commercial businesses but also to military superiority. They have been fighting to keep it out of Chinese hands, by barring China from buying both the world’s most cutting-edge chips and the machinery to make them.

全球只有几家公司能实现这种工艺，中芯国际陷入一场至关重要的地缘政治竞争之中也是因为这种工艺。美国官员说，这种先进的芯片技术不仅对商业运作至关重要，对军事优势也是如此。他们一直在努力阻止这种技术落入中国人手中，并禁止向中国出售世界上最先进的芯片及其制造机器。

Whether China can advance and outrace the United States technologically now hinges on SMIC, a partly state-backed company that is the sole maker of advanced chips in the country and has become its de facto national semiconductor champion. SMIC pumps out millions of chips a month for other companies that design them, such as Huawei, the Chinese technology firm under U.S. sanctions, as well as American firms like Qualcomm.

中国能否在技术上取得进步并超越美国，现在取决于中芯国际。中芯国际是一家部分由政府支持的公司，是中国唯一的先进芯片制造商，已成为事实上的国内半导体行业冠军。中芯国际每月为其他设计芯片的公司生产数百万枚芯片，这些公司包括已受美国制裁的中国科技企业华为，以及高通等美国企业。

So far, SMIC hasn’t been able to produce chips as advanced as those of rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Taiwan, or others in South Korea and the United States. But it is racing forward with a new A.I. chip for Huawei called the Ascend 910C, which is expected to be released this year.

到目前为止，中芯国际还无法生产出台积电或韩国、美国等竞争对手一样先进的芯片。但它正在为华为研发一款名为 Ascend 910C的新型人工智能芯片，预计将在今年发布。

Huawei’s chip is not as fast or sophisticated as the coveted processors from Nvidia, the U.S. chip giant, which the White House has banned for sale in China. SMIC can also most likely make only a small fraction of what Chinese firms want to buy, experts said.

华为芯片的速度和先进程度赶不上美国芯片巨头英伟达的处理器，白宫已禁止英伟达向中国销售尖端芯片。专家们说，中芯国际可能只能生产中国公司想要购买的芯片的一小部分。

But the chip would still be a boon for China’s A.I. ambitions. Nvidia’s components are the secret sauce in A.I. computing clusters that can train chatbots, unlock new medicines and help design hypersonic missiles. If Huawei, with SMIC’s help, can make more A.I. chips in the coming years, that could blunt the impact of American technology restrictions — and perhaps one day cut into Nvidia’s lead.

但这款新芯片仍将助力中国的人工智能雄心。英伟达的芯片是生成人工智能所需的计算机集群的核心所在，人工智能能被用来训练聊天机器人、研发新药，以及帮助设计高超音速导弹。如果华为在中芯国际的帮助下，在未来几年能生产出更多的人工智能芯片，就能削弱美国技术限制的影响，也许有朝一日能削弱英伟达的领先地位。

SMIC did not respond to requests for comment. Huawei and the U.S. Department of Commerce, which oversees technology controls, declined to comment.

中芯国际没有回复记者的置评请求。华为和负责监管技术出口管制的美国商务部拒绝置评。

In an interview in June, Gina M. Raimondo, the commerce secretary, said that the United States led the world in A.I., and that tech restrictions were helping to maintain that lead. “We have protected, to a large extent, our most sophisticated technology from getting to China,” she said.

美国商务部长吉娜·雷蒙多今年6月接受采访时说，美国在人工智能领域处于世界领先地位，限制技术出口有助于保持这一领先地位。“我们已在很大程度上保护了我们最先进的技术，防止它们流入中国，”她说。

Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, said China opposed “politicizing and weaponizing trade, scientific and technological issues.” He added, “Sanctions and repression will not deter the development of China and Chinese enterprises.”

中国驻美大使馆的发言人刘鹏宇说，中国反对“将贸易、科技问题政治化和武器化”。他补充说：“制裁和压制不会阻止中国和中国企业的发展。”

Beijing has invested more than $150 billion in the chip industry, including a $47 billion investment fund announced in May, helping to fuel a stunning factory expansion. SMIC alone operates more than a dozen chip manufacturing facilities, called fabs, around China, and is planning or constructing at least 10 more, according to Paul Triolo, a tech expert at Albright Stonebridge who tracks the industry.

中国政府对芯片行业投入的资金已超过1万亿元，包括今年5月宣布的3440亿元投资基金，帮助推动了工厂的惊人扩张。奥尔布赖特石桥集团跟踪芯片行业的技术专家保罗·特里奥洛表示，仅中芯国际一家就在中国各地运营着十几家被称为晶圆厂的芯片制造设施，并正在规划或建设至少10家晶圆厂。

SMIC, which has nearly 19,000 employees, spent $4.5 billion on capital expenditures in the first half of this year, more than it earned in revenue, according to its financial filings. Among contract chipmakers, it lags only TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung in South Korea in sales. It shipped nearly four million wafers in the first half of the year, each of which can be split into hundreds or thousands of chips.

据中芯国际提交的财务文件，公司拥有近1.9万名员工，今年上半年的资本支出为45亿美元，超过了其收入。在代工芯片制造商中，中芯国际的销售额仅次于台积电和韩国三星。今年上半年，中芯国际出货了近400万片晶圆，每片晶圆上有数百或数千个芯片。

U.S. export controls have “forced China and Chinese companies to get better across the board,” Mr. Triolo said. While these companies face major hurdles, “they have already made significant progress to get where they are now, and you can’t really underestimate their ability to doggedly pursue overcoming the other obstacles.”

特里奥洛说，美国的出口管制“迫使中国和中国公司做出全面改进”。虽然这些公司面临重大障碍，但“它们已取得了重大进展，达到了现在的水平，真的不要低估它们坚持不懈克服其他障碍的能力”。

A national chip champion

全国芯片行业的冠军

中芯国际总裁兼首席执行官张汝京（左）与上海市副市长周禹鹏，摄于2001年。

SMIC was founded in eastern Shanghai in 2000 by Richard Chang, a Taiwanese American who worked for decades at the U.S. chipmaker Texas Instruments and became known as the father of Chinese semiconductors. SMIC was immediately viewed as China’s answer to TSMC, which is the world’s biggest maker of cutting-edge chips.

中芯国际是台裔美国人张汝京2000年在浦东创立的，张汝京曾在美国芯片制造商得州仪器工作了几十年，后被誉为中国半导体之父。中芯国际立即被人视为中国版的台积电，后者是全球最大的尖端芯片制造商。

To court overseas engineers, SMIC created a housing development with an international school and opened churches near its factories. The company hired from TSMC’s research and development team, including Liang Mong-song, SMIC’s current co-chief executive.

为了吸引海外工程师，中芯国际在工厂附近建造了一个有国际学校的住宅区，并在那里开设教堂。中芯国际聘请了来自台积电研发团队的人才，包括中芯国际现任联席首席执行官梁孟松。

SMIC built new fabs at a breakneck pace, becoming the world’s third-biggest chip foundry — the term for a business that makes chips on behalf of other companies — within four years of its founding. It offered cheap prices to firms like Qualcomm, Broadcom and Texas Instruments. In 2004, it listed on stock exchanges in New York and Hong Kong.

中芯国际以惊人的速度建造新晶圆厂，成立不到四年就成了全球第三大芯片代工厂（即为其他公司工生产芯片的企业）。它为高通、博通和得州仪器等公司提供廉价产品。2004年，中芯国际在纽约和香港的证券交易所上市。

SMIC’s ties with the Chinese government have grown closer over time. Its biggest shareholders — China Information and Communication Technology Group, Datang Holdings and China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund — are all state-owned. By 2015, around half of SMIC’s board seats were controlled by people with close ties to the state.

随着时间的推移，中芯国际与中国政府的关系越来越密切。其最大的股东——中国信息通信技术集团、大唐控股和中国集成电路产业投资基金——都是国有企业。到2015年时，中芯国际约一半的董事会席位由与政府关系密切的人占据。

Government support did not guarantee success. After a spate of overbuilding, SMIC was forced to sell off several facilities. In 2019, it delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, listing in Shanghai the next year.

政府支持并不能保证成功。在过度建设之后，中芯国际被迫出售了几家工厂。2019年，它从纽约证券交易所退市，次年在上海上市。

By then, China’s chip industry had attracted U.S. attention as a national security issue. In 2019, the Trump administration persuaded the Netherlands to block a sale by the Dutch firm ASML to SMIC of its most advanced chipmaking machine over concerns that it would aid China militarily.

那时，中国的芯片产业已作为一个国家安全问题引起了美国的关注。2019年，特朗普政府说服了荷兰政府，阻止荷兰公司ASML向中芯国际出售最先进的芯片制造机器，因为美国担心中芯国际为中国军方提供帮助。

In 2020, the White House slapped trade restrictions on SMIC after the publication of a report detailing its links to a major Chinese defense conglomerate and military-affiliated universities. SMIC denied connections to the military. The Biden administration later tightened the restrictions.

2020年的一份报告详细描述了中芯国际与中国一家大型国防集团和军事院校的联系之后，白宫对中芯国际实施了贸易限制。中芯国际否认与军方有联系。拜登政府后来收紧了限制。

But the rules have allowed for workarounds. Companies have continued selling less advanced equipment to SMIC’s new factories by obtaining special licenses and routing sales through non-U.S. subsidiaries and employees.

但这些规则允许变通。美国公司通过获得特别许可，或通过非美国子公司和员工等销售渠道，继续向中芯国际的新工厂出售不太先进的设备。

Given these loopholes, some said it was no mystery that SMIC had progressed.

由于这些漏洞，一些人说，中芯国际取得了进展不足为奇。

“The fence has gotten higher, but we’ve decided to leave open the front, side and back gate,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior adviser for technology analysis to the RAND Corporation.

“围栏越来越高，但我们已决定打开前门、侧门和后门，”兰德公司技术分析高级顾问吉米·古德里奇说。

Today, North American customers account for about a sixth of SMIC’s revenue. The company’s boxy silver factory in eastern Shanghai where it makes advanced chips for Huawei sits in a compound connected to other factories that sell chips that go into products sold around the United States, and buy machinery from American companies.

如今，北美客户约占中芯国际收入的六分之一。该公司在上海浦东为华为生产先进芯片的巨大四方型银色厂房，与园区的其他工厂相连，那些工厂生产的芯片用在了美国各地销售的产品上，而且它们也从美国公司购买机器。

According to Chinese customs data, China’s imports of chipmaking equipment in the first seven months of this year surged 53 percent from the same period in 2023.

据中国海关的数据，今年前七个月，中国进口的芯片制造设备与2023年同期相比增长了53%。

Officials seeking tougher limits on SMIC have faced pushback from those who say that could damage the United States economically, since SMIC also works with American companies.

寻求对中芯国际实施更严格限制的官员面临抵制，反对者认为这么做可能会损害美国的经济，因为中芯国际也与美国公司合作。

When Congress tried in 2022 to pass a law barring the Pentagon from buying products containing SMIC chips, automakers, weapons companies and others complained, saying the components were woven through their supply chains, people familiar with the discussions said.

据知情人士说，2022年，美国国会曾试图通过一项法律，禁止五角大楼购买含有中芯国际芯片的产品，但遭到了汽车制造商、武器制造商和其他公司的抱怨，它们说中芯国际的芯片与它们的供应链已交织在一起。

The law, which eventually passed, was changed to give defense suppliers five more years to cut their ties with Chinese chipmakers that had military connections.

这项法律在修改后最终获得了通过，法律给了美国国防供应商们五年时间，来切断与中国军方有关系的中国芯片制造商的联系。

“U.S. companies would say, accurately, if you tried to put SMIC out of business tomorrow, there would be collateral damage for U.S. companies,” said Chris Miller, the author of “Chip War,” a history of the industry.

“美国公司会说，如果明天就试图让中芯国际破产的话，美国公司会受到附带损害，这个说法是准确的，”关于芯片行业历史的书籍《芯片大战》的作者克里斯·米勒说。

Necessity breeds innovation

需求催生创新

2020年上海芯片行业贸易展览会上的中芯国际展位。

In August 2023, as Ms. Raimondo visited China on a diplomatic trip, Huawei released a phone with a SMIC chip that exceeded the technology limits previously set by U.S. restrictions. The timing was viewed as a slap in the face to the United States.

2023年8月，在雷蒙多对中国进行外交访问的时候，华为发布了一款搭载中芯国际芯片的手机，该芯片的能力超出了美国此前对中国的技术限制。手机推出的时机被视为是打了美国的脸。

Analysts and U.S. chip executives concluded that SMIC had repurposed less advanced equipment to make a more advanced chip.

分析人士和美国的芯片高管们得出结论，中芯国际改造了不太先进的设备，并用其制造了更先进的芯片。

Both TSMC and Intel, the U.S. chip giant, tried the same method in the past. But the strategy can result in many faulty chips, and Intel found it wasn’t commercially viable, semiconductor experts said.

台积电和美国芯片巨头英特尔过去都尝试过同样的方法。但半导体专家们说，这种策略能让许多芯片成废品，英特尔早已发现它在商业上不可行。

In response, U.S. officials have been drafting even tighter rules that would target some SMIC factories. They have also pushed Dutch and Japanese officials to stop supplying SMIC’s most advanced fabs. This month, the Netherlands issued new rules that brought its export controls in line with U.S. regulations.

作为回应，美国官员一直在起草针对一些中芯国际工厂的更严格的限制。他们还敦促荷兰和日本官员停止向中芯国际最先进的晶圆厂供货。本月，荷兰发布了新规定，使本国的出口管制与美国法规保持一致。

The limited access to advanced equipment has undoubtedly held SMIC back, and some experts argue that, as competitors like TSMC and Intel innovate, and as the United States and its allies ramp up their technology controls, China will be left further behind. The constraints already appear to have slowed the rollout of some of Huawei’s new products.

买不到先进设备无疑阻碍了中芯国际的发展，一些专家认为，随着台积电和英特尔等竞争对手不断创新，美国及其盟友加强对技术出口的控制，中国将进一步落在后面。目前的限制似乎已推迟了华为部分新产品的推出。

Galen Zeng, a senior research manager at IDC, a market intelligence firm, estimated that SMIC would most likely lag other international chip giants by three to five years even if China developed substitutes soon for critical chipmaking equipment.

市场情报公司IDC的高级研究经理曾冠玮估计，即使中国很快研发出关键芯片制造设备的替代品，中芯国际也很可能落后其他国际芯片巨头三到五年。

Still, Dylan Patel, the chief analyst at SemiAnalysis, a research firm, estimated that SMIC could make 1.2 million A.I. chips for Huawei next year, double this year — far fewer than what China needs or what American chip designers make, but indicating an upward trajectory.

尽管如此，研究公司SemiAnalysis的首席分析师迪伦·帕特尔估计，中芯国际明年很可能会为华为生产120万枚人工智能芯片，是今年的两倍，虽然远低于中国的需求或美国芯片设计商的产量，但这表明了一种上升趋势。

In an electronics market in Shenzhen in April, John Wu, a Huawei vendor, said Huawei’s A.I. chips had limited availability. But he expressed confidence that Chinese firms would continue to develop, and that competition would ultimately hurt the United States.

今年4月，在深圳的一个电子市场，华为产品销售商约翰·吴（音）说，华为的人工智能芯片供应有限。但他表示对中国企业将继续发展有信心，竞争最终会伤害美国。

He described the U.S. restrictions using a Chinese expression — like “lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet,” he said.

他在描述美国的限制时用一句中国俗语——“搬起石头砸自己的脚”，他说。