Former Conservative Party Leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has warned that China’s "evil regime" is going to use any method at its disposal to increase its global power. He believes that China is currently using rather dubious methods to ensure it becomes a world leader in semiconductor technology.

"China is busy stealing technology, getting other people’s intellectual property rights, and buying up companies," Duncan Smith said. China's government strongly disagreed with these allegations. Beijing immediately introduced sanctions against Iain Duncan Smith. "Some politicians have never produced any evidence for their repeated allegations about China's theft of intellectual property. In fact, China has never done what they accuse us of," Liu Pengyu, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, stressed.

The UK lawmaker lashed out at China after the state-owned company acquired UK firm Newport Wafer Fab, a leading manufacturer of chips. At the beginning of July 2021, Chinese company Nexperia announced its intention to buy it. The UK authorities launched an investigation into this transaction as they were concerned about national security issues. However, later they refused to interfere in the situation.

Notably, one can hardly turn a blind eye to the fact that within several years, Chinese firms supported by the government have acquired several European companies that produce semiconductors. In this regard, Beijing was accused of stealing intellectual property. The Chinese authorities always called such accusations groundless. "We have to judge whether the stuff that they are making is of real intellectual property value and interest to China, whether there are real security implications," Boris Johnson said.

Chips are used to power everything from making household equipment to sophisticated missile systems. Importantly, they are currently in short supply. This is why many countries are trying to increase their production to ensure they have enough of them. The car industry is suffering the most from chips’ shortage. According to a study conducted by AlixPartners, in 2021, the automotive industry may lose $110 billion in revenue due to the shortage of semiconductors. At the same time, automakers will have to reduce the production of cars by 3.9 million, AlixPartners stressed.