Chinese analysts denounce “witch hunt” after controversy with Nvidia

ANDchinese specialists quoted today by the official press denounced a “witch hunt” in U.S. congressmen’s attempts to impose further restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductors to China, after the case involving the leader of Nvidia.

The controversy arose after the American newspaper New York Times associated Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang with Beijing's intelligence services and an alleged extramarital relationship with Nvidia's executive president Jensen Huang, who admitted to being unfaithful to the woman, but did not publicly identify the person with whom he maintained the relationship.

“What is especially worrying is the ‘macarthistic’ logic underlying these accusations,” said Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University, in statements to the Global Times state newspaper.

The academic criticized the tendency to treat as potential Chinese spies people with ties to the Asian country, without solid evidence, in a reference to the persecution of alleged communists, promoted by American Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

Shen warned that this practice could strengthen prejudices against people of Chinese descent and harm trade and technological cooperation between the two powers.

The director of the Institute for Regional and National Studies of the Normal University of Eastern China, Chen Hong, accused delegates from the two major American parties of using a controversy still under investigation as a “political instrument” to justify further technological containment measures against Beijing.

According to Chen, congressmen rushed to establish a link between Huang's personal relationship and the restrictions on semiconductors, without being determined whether spy activities or sensitive information leaks occurred, in an attempt to "extend technology containment" against China.

Critics arise after U.S. senators Elizabeth Warren of the Democratic Party and Jim Banks of the Republican Party defended, on Monday, a further intervention by Congress to prevent China's access to advanced artificial intelligence processors (IA).

Both considered that news about the relationship between Jensen Huang and an alleged Chinese intelligence agent made it more urgent to strengthen controls.

Senators defended the approval of the artificial intelligence oversight bill (AI Overwatch Act), presented in April and included in the Senate version of the defense bill for 2027.

The debate also covers other initiatives prior to the controversy, such as the Chip Security Act, which aims to improve the traceability of advanced processors to combat smuggling, and the MATCH Act project, which seeks to coordinate with the US allies restrictions on the sale of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.

Shen considered that resorting to suspicion of espionage to hinder trade relations is a political instrumentalisation of national security, which could harm both China and the United States.

The statements appear after Nvidia announced on Sunday an independent investigation into the news that its executive president would have been the subject of a foreign spy operation.

The company assured, however, that it had no reason to believe that trade secrets or US national security were compromised.

Beijing reiterated on Monday the rejection of the charges against Alice Huang, the Chinese entrepreneur associated with the leader of Nvidia, which the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Guo Jiakun classified as “pure invention and slander”.