U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg TV on Friday that discussions with Chinese officials in Beijing did not center on U.S. export controls on semiconductor chips. Greer said chip export restrictions were not discussed at the bilateral meeting and indicated that the prospect of substantial sales of Nvidia's advanced H200 chips to China is still distant.
Greer reiterated that the matter was not a primary agenda item, saying, "This was not a major topic of discussion at the bilateral meeting. We did not talk about chip export controls at the meeting." He also noted that "15 to 17" U.S. CEOs who attended Thursday's event with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping raised company-specific concerns during their conversations.
Reuters has reported that the United States cleared roughly 10 Chinese companies to purchase H200 units, naming Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance among those approved, but that no deliveries have taken place to date. The H200 approvals followed a decision by the Trump administration in December to permit exports of the chips to China, with additional conditions imposed in January.
Greer emphasized that whether China permits imports of the H200 was ultimately for Chinese authorities to decide, describing it as a "sovereign decision" for China. He framed export policy as dynamic, saying, "They’re fluid, right? They change over time. It depends on what threats you see, what’s commercially available worldwide, what the Chinese can already do."
Addressing the trade-offs policymakers weigh when setting export rules, Greer added, "And so you want to make sure you strike a balance between national security, protecting high tech, but also making sure that we’re benefiting from overseas markets. And so those are the kinds of things that went into the H200 decision as to whether the Chinese are going to buy or not."
The discussion around H200 access has unfolded even as Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang extended a last-minute invitation tied to President Trump's Beijing visit earlier this week. Despite the approvals and executive engagement, Greer's comments suggest a significant expansion of H200 shipments to China has not materialized.
Industry and policy tensions underpin the limited flow of advanced U.S. AI chips into China. The article noted that some Chinese AI firms are increasingly promoting their reliance on domestic chips, while U.S. curbs have constrained Beijing's ambitions for self-sufficiency at a time when Chinese fabrication facilities are struggling to scale output. That shortfall in computing capacity has, in recent months, prompted many Chinese AI models to ration user access.
Chinese policymakers are reported to be concerned about deepening reliance on U.S. chips, viewing such dependence as a supply chain vulnerability. At the same time, hawkish U.S. lawmakers and former Biden administration officials have argued that allowing the sale of advanced AI chips to China could enable Beijing to close the gap with U.S. capabilities in frontier AI and potentially advance Chinese military aims.
On China’s own trajectory, Greer said that Chinese actors "are making their own determinations. They’re very committed to domestic production." He observed that Chinese officials "often see U.S. high tech sometimes as a threat to them because if we’re ahead of the game like we are on AI chips, sometimes they feel that can stop their own growth."
Contextual note: The article reports statements and developments as described by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and referenced reporting on approvals and deliveries of Nvidia H200 chips to Chinese firms. It does not include additional independent verification or further details beyond those provided in those statements and reports.