Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

US acts of technological bullying are self-serving, unfair and non-compliant with global trade rules, which destabilize global production and supply chains and will backfire, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday, emphasizing that Washington suppression will not contain China's development but only strengthen the nation's resolve to stand on its own feet in science and technology.

Mao was responding to a media question over the views of John Neuffer, the president and chief executive officer of the Semiconductor Industry Association of the US, who said that China is the largest semiconductor market for America, and US semiconductor firms can't afford to be absent from the Chinese market. 

China is the world's largest semiconductor market, and forcibly pushing "decoupling from or breaking links with China" and artificially interfering with normal market behavior is not in the interests of any party, Mao noted.

The US has been generalizing the concept of national security and abusing export controls to restrict exports to China in order to maintain its hegemony, Mao added.

She said that the US move will deprive the rights of scientific and technological progress and development of many developing countries, keeping them permanently at the lower end of the industrial chain. 

"The self-serving acts of scientific and technological bullying are unfair and non-compliant, they destabilize the global production and supply chain, are detrimental to the development of the world economy, and will eventually backfire," Mao said. 

Chinese market "is our biggest market", Neuffer said in an interview with Bloomberg, stressing that "our view is that we need to play in that market."

"It's up to the government to determine what national security priorities are," Neuffer said, "that's not our business. Our business is to make sure that the government, when it's taking steps to ensure national security that it knows what kind of commercial impact it has."

China on Tuesday criticized the US government's discriminatory subsidy policies and administrative measures, and called on the WTO to strengthen supervision of US practices that violate WTO rules at a meeting held in Geneva. For instance, China said that the Inflation Reduction Act introduced in 2022 was a protectionist measure in the guise of "green development." 

Mao said that China insists on a high level of opening-up, and it is willing to "develop together and share opportunities with other countries", adding that China will firmly defend its legitimate rights and interests.

"Containment and suppression can hardly stop China's development, which will only strengthen China's determination and ability to stand on its own feet in science and technology," Mao said.