By Justin Sherman
Publication Date: 2025-11-25 05:01:00
The Trump administration has oscillated significantly in recent weeks on its policy toward two critical sources of China tech risk: chips and TikTok.
It seemed to oppose Nvidia selling highly capable H20 chips to China, including for national security reasons, before it backtracked, now accelerating their sale in exchange for a cut of the profits. Now, chip sales to Saudi Arabia may grow despite China’s considerable activity in the country. Trump’s first administration also hammered relentlessly to ban TikTok on national security grounds, watched many congressional allies pass a bipartisan bill to effectuate a ban, and then spent months ignoring the Supreme Court-upheld law altogether. Now, a deal will potentially leave China with influence over TikTok’s algorithm.
The Trump administration has oscillated significantly in recent weeks on its policy toward two critical sources of China tech risk: chips and TikTok.
It seemed to oppose Nvidia selling highly capable H20 chips to China, including for national security reasons, before it backtracked, now accelerating their sale in exchange for a cut of the profits. Now, chip sales to Saudi Arabia may grow despite China’s considerable activity in the country. Trump’s first administration also hammered relentlessly to ban TikTok on national security grounds, watched many congressional allies pass a bipartisan bill to effectuate a ban, and then spent months ignoring the Supreme Court-upheld law…
