Chapter 1655 The ultimatum is only for the allies

In the Internet age, news spreads at a speed far beyond imagination.

Although the live broadcast signal was precisely cut off at the moment before the fatal information was leaked, and although "Thor" himself immediately deleted the live broadcast replay and remained surprisingly silent after receiving the mild but weighty "communication" call.

But the Internet has memory and is good at spreading information.

"Brother Hammer was livestreaming dismantling a top-of-the-line RS, but when he got to the chip, the livestream suddenly disappeared!"

"Stop guessing, look at the screenshot! [Blurry screenshot of Hammer holding a green chip substrate with tweezers.jpg]"

"Holy crap! I saw it! That chip has '1515' engraved on it!"

"1515? What does that mean? Produced in 15 years and 15 weeks?"

"Wasn't the Mate SX RS released at the end of last year? How could the chip have been produced last month?!"

"Why was the live broadcast interrupted? There must be something fishy going on! The chip from the Ju factory is not legitimate!"

"Blindly guessing TSMC is secretly manufacturing it?"

"Could it be Samsung? But Samsung's own craftsmanship doesn't seem to be very good..."

In just a few hours, the number combination "1515" and the blurry but very impactful close-up screenshot of the chip substrate spread like a virus, being discussed and fermented in major technology forums, social media groups and even overseas platforms.

Keywords such as "Chrysanthemum Factory", "7nm Chip", "Mysterious Foundry", and "Live Broadcast Ban" quickly became hot searches.

Doubts, speculations, and conspiracy theories are rampant.

China has remained absolutely silent on this matter, without any official explanation or refutation.

But this silence, in the noisy public opinion field, is like a huge magnet, attracting more curious and inquiring eyes.

Two days later, Washington, the White House.

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon hurried into the Oval Office, a thin, encrypted tablet in hand.

"Sir," Donilon's voice broke the silence of the office, "During our routine open-source intelligence collection, we captured some quite...interesting information. After preliminary analysis, experts from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the NSA believe it may be of key value in assessing the current technological competition with China."

Ao Guanhai had already taken the tablet and started browsing the content on the screen.

What was displayed on the screen was the slightly blurry screenshot of the live broadcast that was widely circulated on the Internet - a hand wearing a gloved hand was holding a green rectangular substrate with precision tweezers. On the dark gray square chip in the center of the substrate, several lines of laser-etched characters were vaguely visible.

Ao Guanhai glanced at the picture, his brows slightly furrowed, with a hint of confusion.

Donilon didn't wait for the other party to ask questions and continued to explain: "It's a disassembled Mate SX phone from the Kirin factory. The green piece inside is the SoC chip called Kirin 9X 5G."

"Didn't the technical department already disassemble and analyze this phone from the Ju factory?" At this time, Ao Guanhai's attitude was still somewhat casual.

"Yes, we've disassembled several before." Donilon nodded, his fingers swiping across his tablet, pulling up several images of previous intelligence disassembly of the same model of mobile phone chip for comparison. "But please look carefully at this one."

He enlarged the new image and pointed his finger at the relatively small line of characters at the bottom of the chip. "Especially this line, it represents the production batch and date."

"1515?" Ao Guanhai repeated in a low voice, "2015, week 15... last month?"

This type of expression is also commonly used in the production of automobile tires and glass, so it is not difficult to understand after knowing the meaning of this four-digit number.

He raised his head, his eyes instantly sharpening as he shot towards Donilon.

"That's right, sir," Donilon replied affirmatively. "Last month. This is completely contrary to the ban you signed and took effect on December 12st of last year. The ban explicitly prohibits any company from providing chip foundry services using 31-nanometer or lower advanced processes to the Ju Factory and its affiliated entities."

Ao Guanhai leaned forward slightly, leaning against the large desk, his fingers unconsciously tapping the smooth surface. "Source? Is this picture reliable?"

His voice was low, suppressing the rising anger.

"The source is a local Chinese live video streaming platform."

Donilon explained:

"A tech blogger with a considerable following accidentally removed this chip and cleaned the surface of the substrate during a livestream disassembly of a newly purchased top-of-the-line phone. However, his livestream was cut off by the platform as soon as he displayed this line of code, claiming it was a 'violation of regulations'..."

"Interrupted?" Ao Guanhai raised his eyebrows and leaned forward unconsciously, showing strong interest in this detail. "Just before the most crucial information was about to be exposed?"

"Yes." Donilon lowered his voice. "Also, according to our intelligence sources within the platform, the order to cut off the live streaming came directly from China's Cyber Emergency Center, and was likely endorsed by higher-level security departments."

The last trace of doubt in Ao Guanhai's eyes completely disappeared, replaced by anger at being fooled.

"This is simply a guilty conscience!" He slammed the table. "What are they trying to cover up? What are they afraid we'll see?"

"No wonder the Chinese have been so confident. It turns out there's a problem within us... It turns out someone is secretly collaborating with them to undermine the United States' strategy!"

Feeling the mounting pressure, Donilon cautiously added, "The current consensus within the intelligence community is that this image is highly authentic. Combined with the unusual behavior of the livestream being precisely interrupted, it's almost certain that illegal manufacturing practices occurred after the ban took effect, providing the other party with advanced chips they couldn't produce themselves. This explains their unusual resilience in the semiconductor sector."

"Investigate!" Ao Guanhai's voice was firm. "We must investigate! And we must investigate thoroughly! Use all means to find this traitor! I want to know who is giving blood transfusions to the Chinese people!"

"We are already mobilizing resources to conduct an in-depth investigation," Donilon responded immediately, "but with all due respect, the leads are very limited."

He paused and pulled up another report summary:

"The other side has achieved an unprecedented level of control over this type of information, with only a very small number of core decision-makers and executors knowing the full picture. Currently, we can mainly rely on technical analysis and indirect intelligence."

"In addition, ASML and Zeiss' latest joint technology assessment report still maintains their professional judgment: based on the currently public and observable technology path, it is impossible for China to obtain an extreme ultraviolet light source that meets the requirements of lithography."

"In other words, this chip came from an illegal external foundry." Ao Guanhai stood up suddenly, paced behind his desk, and analyzed, "Qualcomm and Samsung were both initiators and supporters of the ban. There's no reason for them to oppose themselves. So, the only suspect is this company."

He stopped and stared at Donilon with a sharp gaze: "TSMC!"

Donilon felt a little sweaty. "Sir, TSMC is indeed the most logical suspect, but we really don't have any direct evidence..."

"Evidence?" Ao Guanhai sneered, interrupting Donilon. "The Chinese security department was so anxious to cut off the live broadcast, even exposing their extreme importance to this OEM channel. This in itself is the most powerful evidence!"

Seeing that his leader had already made his decision, Donilon knew that it was useless to say more, so he changed the direction of his questioning: "So, do we need to initiate a formal security investigation into TSMC?"

"Do not."

Ao Guanhai placed his hands on the table, leaning forward slightly, emitting a strong sense of oppression:

"We've already shown enough trust and sincerity, but all we got was betrayal and deception... So, there won't be any more chances!"

"So what you mean is..." Donilon's heart was lifted.

"Notify the Ministry of Commerce and take immediate action," Ao Guanhai ordered, each word carefully. "First, under the pretext of 'ensuring supply chain security' and 'preventing the spread of critical technologies,' dispatch a regulatory team composed of BIS technical experts and federal officials to all TSMC production lines effective immediately."

"I want them to have the highest authority to inspect any production records, process flow, and shipping lists at any time. Any obstruction or concealment will be considered a violation of United States law."

Donilon felt dizzy.

Fortunately, the forces behind TSMC have no independent status at all, otherwise this request would be difficult to achieve.

But since there is a first, there must be a second.

"Then...what else?"

Donilon asked cautiously.

"Issuing an ultimatum to TSMC and the authorities behind it, requiring them to unconditionally and permanently relocate all of their 7nm and higher-level chip manufacturing capacity, including but not limited to core equipment, process modules, technical teams, and key intellectual property, to North America. Otherwise..."

Halfway through his speech, Ao Guanhai felt that he was short of breath due to annoyance.

So he took a deep breath and continued:

"Otherwise, TSMC will be immediately included in the 'Entity List' at the same level as JMC and Sinochip International, and will be subject to the strictest import and export controls. Its access to any US technology, equipment, software, and even key materials will be completely cut off. Let them make their own choice!"