POLICY REMEDIES

AVIC Military Semiconductor Threat Overview

Shenzhen AVIC Military Semiconductor Co., Ltd scores as a SEVERE RISK in the November 2023 Chip Risk Monitor for supply and partnership ties to the Chinese military – and for risk of serving as a channel for international technology to reach those.

Shenzhen AVIC Military Semiconductor Co., Ltd has received little to no international attention: It is neither on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List nor the Department of the Treasury’s Chinese Military-Industrial Complex List.

Background

Shenzhen AVIC Military Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (AVIC Military Semiconductor), established in 2009, is a supplier of military electronic components. It appears to serve as a channel for international semiconductor products to enter the Chinese defense industrial base. AVIC Military Semiconductor’s main brands include ALTERA, XLINX, TI, MAXIM, and ADI; its products are used in aviation, aerospace, the nuclear industry, mineral exploration, satellite navigation, communications, security application, supercomputers, medical equipment, ships, intelligent robots, and industrial automation. The company is headquartered in Shenzhen and reports having offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and the United States

AVIC Military Semiconductor supplies Chinese military entities; cooperates with Chinese military, government, and military-civil fusion entities; and could serve as a channel for Beijing to circumvent restrictions on access to international, military-relevant technology.

Objective Risks

Supply Partnership Risks

AVIC Military Semiconductor is a military supplier. In 2015, the company established a “marketing department” in Shenzhen-Futian to provide military-grade and industrial-grade supplies to third-party qualified suppliers and market enterprises. The company is the designated supplier of specific components for the Northwest Military Industry Research Institute. The company also reports on its website supplying products for a host of military applications including:

Radar and sensors,
Electronic warfare,
Secure communication, and
Encryption.

Moreover, the company’s descriptions of its products in those verticals suggest that it leverages inputs from leading international, including US, companies (e.g., Intel). For example, from the company website’s descriptions of electronic warfare applications:

Electronic warfare designers can optimize digital signal processing (DSP) resources while overcoming SWaP-C limitations and achieve the highest energy efficiency (GFLOPS/watt) of any FPGA device in the industry. With Intel’s FPGA tools, DSP pipelines can be quickly implemented and optimized to achieve up to 1.5 TFLOPS on Intel® Arria® 10 FPGA and up to 10 TFLOPS on Intel® Stratix® 10 FPGA.

Partnership Risks

AVIC Military Semiconductor advertises a host of partnerships, including with Chinese military, military-civil fusion, and government entities. A “cooperative partner” section of the website lists: China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), BYD, Beidou Navigation Satellite System, Han’s Laser, Datang Mobile, DJI, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), Norinco, Huawei, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), ZTE, CRRC, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Huawei, DJI, CASIC, Norinco, AVIC, CASIC, CASC, CSSC, and CNNC and/or select subsidiaries of those have been placed ont eh Department of Commerce’s Entity List. CNNC, DJI, Norinco, Huawei, AVIC, CASIC, CSSC, and CASC have all been listed on the US Department of the Treasury’s Chinese Military-Industrial Complex List. The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the PRC’s national academy of national sciences and its highest consultancy for science and technology. CAS’s work supports China’s military modernization and military-civil fusion strategy. The Beidou Navigation Satellite System is China’s domestic alternative to GPS and a pillar of the military-civil fusion strategy. Datang Telecom is a major Chinese State-owned company with military ties that include providing military communications infrastructure to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).