If you ask me, it's not a question of IF China will retaliate - it's WHEN.
The U.S. has recently spearheaded a movement of restricting the export of critical semiconductor manufacturing equipment to Chinese customers, citing the obvious national security concerns.
The Netherlands and now Japan - the only other countries currently able to build advanced lithography machines - have both restricted their overseas sales.
China is a kleptocracy at best and a hostile foreign power at worst. It makes perfect sense to keep our most valuable secrets guarded from it.
But we can't expect China to take this lying down.
This move isn't just political posturing. It's a direct attack on one of China's most important industries.
Chinese companies can eventually build their own machines, but it will take valuable time and also give American and European competitors a huge head start.
That doesn't compute with the CCP. The party operates like a shark - either keep moving forward or die.
As much as I begrudgingly respect President Biden for sticking to his guns, he's playing a very dangerous game right now - especially considering the type of military hardware we've seen coming from China lately...
The Ukraine invasion has been going on far longer than even Russia expected, but it didn't start in 2022.
The REAL invasion began in 2014 when Russia pulled this exact same stunt by annexing Crimea - only with less media attention.
After nearly a decade, Russia hasn't been repelled from the land it seized. And now, emboldened by that apparent success, it's returned to steal even more.