House China Panel chair Moolenaar urges Trump to tighten AI chip export controls on China

Rep. John Moolenaar, the Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, is pressing the Trump administration to stop dragging its feet on AI chip export controls. In a letter sent to Commerce Department official Jeffrey Kessler, Moolenaar called for strict enforcement of a Biden-era “foundry rule” designed to choke off the supply of high-end logic chips to Chinese entities that shouldn’t be getting them. The loophole problem Moolenaar’s frustration centers on a specific, well-documented failure. Chips manufactured by Sophgo were previously discovered inside Huawei AI products, despite Huawei being one of the most heavily sanctioned technology companies on the planet. The foundry rule was designed to address exactly this kind of gap. It targets the relationship between chip fabrication plants and untrusted Chinese end-users, aiming to ensure that companies like TSMC aren’t inadvertently (or otherwise) funneling advanced semiconductors to firms on the restricted list. Moolenaar’s letter specifically flagged the risk that without proper enforcement, the TSMC-Sophgo-Huawei pipeline could repeat itself. The Trump administration previously appro...