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Mike Gallagher. chairperson of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson Michael McCaul. (AP/Yonhap)

Amidst the US federal government’s announcement that it would respond to Chinese sanctions against US chip maker Micron Technology together with its allies, the chair of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs asked South Korean companies to refrain from filling the gap left by Micron.

US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson Michael McCaul and Mike Gallagher, chairperson of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, sent an open letter to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Friday, urging action following China’s Micron ban.

Writing that their two committees “are deeply concerned about the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) longstanding and ongoing economic coercion against the United States and our companies,” the two chairs called on the Commerce Department to “rally US partners and allies to defeat this PRC embargo.”

“We must quickly work with Japan and South Korea to ensure Japanese and South Korean companies do not undercut Micron by taking its sales that were lost to the PRC’s unjustifiable boycott,” their letter went on.

Of note, Gallagher had released a statement on May 23 urging the Department of Commerce to prevent South Korea from backfilling the gap left by Micron and demanding retaliation against Chinese semiconductor companies.

In their letter, McCaul and Gallagher wrote, “We believe that the time has come for the United States—alongside our allies—to firmly push back on the PRC’s economic coercion,” adding, “The Commerce Department must rally US partners and allies to defeat this PRC embargo.”

In addition, they called into question a statement by Jang Young-jin, first vice minister at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which was made during a press conference on May 22. Reacting to reportage by the Financial Times, according to which the US opposed Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix filling Micron’s sales gap, Jang had said, “This is a matter corporations should decide for themselves; the government cannot tell them what to do.” Citing this statement, the open letter argued that the South Korean government “will not intervene in Samsung’s or SK Hynix’s sales to prevent the companies from backfilling Micron’s market share.”

At the time, Jang also said he believed the two companies “would judge well, taking into account both sides, since they do business globally.”

McCaul and Gallagher also argued that if South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix took Micron’s market share and got exempted from US export controls, this “would send a dangerous signal to the PRC government and weaken our close alliance with South Korea.” This was in reference to the one-year exemption South Korean companies operating factories in China received from US export controls against high-tech chip manufacturing equipment, which took into effect last October.

Some project that the US may attempt to pressure the South Korean government and South Korean companies with the question of whether or not it would extend its temporary export control exemption.

Both members of the Republican Party, McCaul and Gallagher are two of the most vocal hard-liners on China in the US Congress, and they have taken the lead on pressuring South Korea regarding China’s embargo on Micron. Another hard-liner on China, Republican Senator Marco Rubio also sent a letter to Raimondo on Tuesday, asking the Commerce Secretary whether a second, one-year license would be given to South Korean chipmakers.

“Other companies, such as Korean chipmaker Samsung, have lobbied for and won special, one-year exemptions from the export controls, allowing business as usual at production facilities in China,” he wrote.

Though not as bluntly as these members of Congress, the US Department of Commerce and the White House also announced that the US would respond to sanctions against Micron together with allies, hinting at the possibility of pressure building against South Korea.

By Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

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