From a September 2022 letter to then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, co-signed by Marco Rubio (then a Republican senator from Florida, currently secretary of state) and Mark Warner (Democratic senator from Virginia):
We write to convey our extreme concern about the possibility that
Apple Inc. will soon procure 3D NAND memory chips from the
People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-owned manufacturer Yangtze
Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC). Such a decision would introduce
significant privacy and security vulnerabilities to the global
digital supply chain that Apple helps shape given YMTC’s
extensive, but often opaque, ties to the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) and concerning PRC-backed entities. In addition, we write to
convey that any decision to partner with YMTC, no matter the
intended market of the product offerings developed by such a
partnership, would affirm and reward the PRC’s distortive and
unfair trade practices, which undermine U.S. companies globally by
creating significant advantages to Chinese firms at the expense of
foreign competitors. Last year, the Biden Administration described
YMTC as China’s “national champion memory chip producer,” which
supports the CCP’s efforts to counter U.S. innovation and
leadership in this space.
The “no matter the intended market of the product offerings” bit was a reference to Apple’s plan only to use Chinese RAM chips for iPhones sold in the Chinese market. I wouldn’t want Chinese RAM in my iPhone any more than I’d want to buy a “Chinese DSLR” as my camera.
Anyway, Apple’s 2022 attempt to get an OK for this went over like a lead balloon, meeting sharp bipartisan opposition. Rubio is today the most influential man in the Trump administration in foreign affairs.
