China says U.S. abusing trade measures with chip export controls

BEIJING - New U.S. export controls targeting Chinese chip manufacturers are an abuse of trade measures and designed to maintain the country's "technological hegemony", China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Saturday.

The U.S. government published a sweeping set of export controls on Friday that including a measure to cut China off from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with U.S. equipment.

"The United States will only hurt and isolate itself when its actions backfire," Mao said at a regular briefing.