Chapter 1678 For Whom the Bell Tolls
The news that China announced that it could produce equivalent 7nm chips on its own was like a storm, quickly attracting the attention of the world.
In comparison, David Turley’s bold words at the Helion Energy conference seemed like a faint echo from a distant galaxy, completely drowned out by the noise of “Huaxin International,” “7nm,” and “mass production.”
The last psychological defense line that the Western world has long relied on to maintain itself collapsed in the face of facts.
Just as Chang Haonan expected, the only psychological advantage the Western world had over China was that it believed it had mastered the key to producing the new generation of semiconductors, and almost all high-tech industries were directly or indirectly related to semiconductors.
They therefore firmly believed that all previous countermeasures taken by China were bluffs.
As long as they continue to persist, the Chinese side will be the first to be unable to hold on and will eventually choose to make concessions, or at least sit back at the negotiating table.
But the Chinese news the night before ruthlessly burst this beautiful dream bubble and directly announced the bankruptcy of the fundamental idea of "relying on the semiconductor industry to restrict China's development."
After the almost suffocating surprise, there was a violent spasm in the public opinion field.
The Financial Times even expressed a sense of fate, saying that if China's statement is confirmed, it will mark the accelerated end of "an era in which the West dominates key technology standards." Its impact will go far beyond trade disputes and touch the deep foundations of the global power structure.
Especially the American media, it is naturally impossible for them to give up so easily.
Charles Horton, the technology editor of the Wall Street Journal, stared at the news footage playing repeatedly on the screen. After a long pause, he finally typed a line in the headline:
"A ray of hope in the fog? China's new technology claims urgently need independent verification."
The article is filled with technical questions: Does the yield truly meet mass production standards? Are the core components of the equipment fully self-developed? What is the scale of production capacity?
There is a struggle of unwillingness to believe between the lines.
The New York Times attempted to deconstruct it from a macro perspective:
"China's claimed breakthrough may reshape the global technology supply chain."
Although its analysis is restrained, its core argument is still that "claims do not equal reality", suggesting that this may be a smokescreen released under high pressure to shake the opponent's resolve.
And seemingly objectively called for "cautious observation and waiting for further verification."
The situation seemed to have reached a stalemate.
However, these doubts were actually expected.
Therefore, this is not just a one-time report.
But...
A series.
At 7pm the next day, the familiar news theme song once again became the focus of the world.
The second episode of "Independent Innovation to Forge the Core Soul" will meet the audience on time.
It is also a 5 minute 30 second long content.
However, unlike the day before, today's five and a half minutes was divided into three parts, reporting three related news items:
"my country has achieved another success in its 5G communications network construction. The first five pilot cities have fully completed 5G network coverage in their main urban areas three months ahead of schedule. The network is operating stably and efficiently, and the user experience has been significantly improved... This marks a solid step forward in my country's journey to build a next-generation information infrastructure."
The screen switched, and dense 5G base stations appeared like a honeycomb on the simulated map of the city, while engineers monitored the equipment running at full capacity in the computer room.
The four words "adequate supply" silently but powerfully refute all suspicions about insufficient chip production capacity.
Without the support of massive, stable, and high-performance communication chips, base station construction and early coverage on this scale would be out of the question.
The second one follows:
"my country's independently developed new generation supercomputer 'High Performance Computing-7' (HPC-7) officially started operation today at the Shenzhen National Supercomputing Center."
The camera panned across this massive structure made up of countless black cabinets, accompanied by the solemn and passionate voice of the female voice actor:
"The HPC-7 system's peak computing power has surpassed 100 petaFLOPS (equivalent to one quadrillion floating-point operations per second) for the first time, placing its overall performance among the best in the world. The system's core processors and acceleration components all utilize advanced computing chips independently designed and produced in my country..."
This is tantamount to a loud slap in the face of David Terry, who declared in the media a few days ago that "China has been excluded from the supercomputing competition". It also provides the most eloquent endorsement of the performance and reliability of domestic chips with irrefutable hard power.
The most murderous and heartbreaking one is the third one:
To meet the strong demand for advanced process chips in domestic and international markets, Huaxin International announced that its semiconductor manufacturing base in the BHX District of Tianjin will complete the construction of a second equivalent 2015-nanometer process production line by the end of 7…
This news footage is somewhat similar to yesterday's, showing the grand blueprint of Huaxin International's Tianjin base and the busy first-phase production line workshop.
But the second half of the story was beyond everyone's expectations.
"Once this production line is completed and put into operation, it will further release production capacity and provide efficient, stable, and high-quality chip foundry services to global integrated circuit design companies..."
"..."
What comes after that is no longer important.
Global OEM.
These four simple words completely shattered the speculation that "technological blockade has resulted in production capacity being limited to self-use."
It officially announced that China has not only achieved a breakthrough, but also has the ability to participate in the global high-end chip market competition and export rules.
These three pieces of news are like a precise scalpel.
One cut cuts off the doubts about "insufficient production capacity", another cuts out the problem of "doubtful performance", and the last cut directly hits the delusion of "building cars in isolation".
Strong dosage, strong efficacy and standard purpose.
As for the therapeutic effect, it is naturally immediate.
The various media outlets that had been arguing from various angles about whether the news was true or false the day before were collectively speechless this time.
The Wall Street Journal, which had previously raised the most skeptical questions, quietly removed Charles Houghton's draft article full of doubts, and reposted CCTV's English press release on HPC-7 and the second 7-nanometer production line in an inconspicuous position on its website without any comment.
Regardless of their stance, the other colleagues all chose the safest approach:
Reprinted information released by the Chinese government, but without commenting.
It was as if the entire English-speaking world had been silenced.
Surprisingly, this cold wave of public opinion was finally broken by a newspaper from Southeast Asia.
Nanyang Siang Pau.
This media outlet, which usually takes a subtle stance on East-West issues, finally made a big move after being silent for several hours.
It used an entire front page to in-depth review of the breakthroughs China has made in several key scientific and technological fields over the past year, which have been intentionally or unintentionally underestimated or ignored by the West:
Q2014 3: China became the first country in the world to achieve large-scale commercial deployment of 5G networks.
Q2014 4: The "Zou Yu" project completed the world's first full-state flight test verification of a reusable hypersonic aircraft, achieving horizontal take-off and landing, near-space hypersonic cruise and precise return.
Q2015 1: Announced the launch of the landmark "Beacon" space relay base project, with the core energy source being the megawatt-class space nuclear reactor XS-1.
2015年Q2：核工业西南物理研究院宣布在HL-2A装置上实现5200万摄氏度H模等离子体超过4000秒（近70分钟）的稳态运行，并确认实现净能量增益（Q>1），可控核聚变研究取得历史性跨越……
Q2015 3: Sinochip International announced it had fully mastered the equivalent of a 7nm chip manufacturing process and achieved mass production. It also planned to launch a second production line by the end of Q4, aiming to capture the global foundry market.
……
Although these news items all come from public reports, they have never been specifically arranged together like today.
Any reader who sees this report, especially Western readers, must feel a sense of oppression.
China is making breakthroughs in the most cutting-edge high-tech fields almost on a quarterly basis.
If this pace continues, how long can Washington hold out for the front it is desperately trying to maintain?
In fact, it doesn’t matter even if some people cannot see the deeper meaning, or deliberately don’t want to see it.
Because at the end of the article, it says in unabashed words:
"This series of breakthroughs, which are not isolated but rather accelerating, clearly outlines an unstoppable upward trajectory. Attempts to halt this process through traditional containment measures, such as blocking key materials, severing the supply of core equipment, and coercing technological partners, have proven to be futile and a strategic misjudgment that accelerates China's own decline..."
"The 'Iron Curtain' of technology is being distorted by internal pressures. It's time for the world, especially those countries that have long held a dominant position, to abandon their arrogance and complacency, face up to the reality, and begin to learn how to coexist with a China that has established a leading position in all aspects of science and technology..."
"..."
The title of this front-page report is extremely eye-catching.
Who is tolling the death knell of the old order?
