On Monday Japan announced it would ban, as from July “at the earliest”, the export of 23 different kinds of chip manufacturing equipment to China.

China’s Ministry of Commerce calls the decision “an abuse of export control measures and a serious departure from free trade” and called on the Japanese government to “immediately correct its wrongdoing.”

 An article in the state-controlled Global Times said that Japan faces “resolute counter-measures” to the decision. 

The US and the Netherlands have also banned the export of some classes of chip-making equipment to China.

 

At the weekend China called the G7 meeting in Hiroshima an “anti-China workshop.”