US lawmakers want review of Apple’s plan to use Chinese chips in iPhone 14

according to a September 24th report on Nikkei Asia a team of U.S senators has recently asked the nation’s top security officials to examine the potential risks posed by Apple’s plan to use a major Chinese firm’s memory chips for its new iPhone 14. in a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes the lawmakers led by Senator Marco Rubio Senate intelligence committee’s Vice chairman said we write to convey our extreme concern about the possibility that Apple Incorporated will soon procure 3D nand memory chips from the People’s Republic of China’s state-owned manufacturer Yangtze memory Technologies company if

such plan was implemented it would introduce significant privacy and security vulnerabilities to the global digital supply chain that Apple helped shape this came after business Korea on September 6 reported that apple had included Yangtze memory Technologies company ymtc to its list of nand flash suppliers for the new iPhone 14 Series this marks the first time a Chinese firm has joined the list as Apple has already purchased nand flash memory from major suppliers such as Samsung Electronics skynix kyosha of Japan and Micron Technology of the US in the letter the Senators urged Haynes to analyze the

economic and National Security threats posed by such partnership as well as the close ties between ymtc and the Communist Regime the White House announced last

June that ymtc has received 24 billion dollars from the CCP for Rapid development the lawmaker wants Haynes to also pay close attention to why mtc’s support for other Chinese companies including supplying the controversial Telecom Behemoth Huawei which is under strict U.S export control rules therefore the lawmakers warn in the letter that apple and ymtc’s Corporation would facilitate beijing’s goal of controlling the global semiconductor Market such a partnership would affirm and

reward China’s distortive and unfair Trade Practices which undermine U.S companies globally by creating significant advantages to Chinese firms at the expense of foreign competitors in addition the Senators also claimed buoyed by a major contract with leading Global equipment vendors such as Apple ymtc success with threaten the 24 000 American jobs that support memory chip production as reported by The Washington Post Apple said that it would not use ymtc chips in any of its products and all user data stored on the chips is fully encrypted moreover the company is still considering whether it should use the

chips for iPhones in China not the Global Market Apple has also confirmed it would not use the chips for iPhones outside of China however the Senators still worry that those Chinese phones with ymtc chips will sneak out of China somehow and eventually make their way into the international market