Issue US economic security measures resist rollback and follow three paths

Summary

Unlike tariffs, US economic security measures are hard to unwind because the problems Washington cites are ones China can hardly fix. Earlier export controls targeted specific end uses, but current chip controls start from the view that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and use in China is itself the problem. The report sees three paths for these disputes. China can retaliate with hard-to-counter tools such as rare earth controls, though since Trump's first term such measures have rarely been fully withdrawn and package bargaining dilutes the effect. It can also neutralise US tools through indigenisation, as the conditional easing of Nvidia H20 export controls in response to China's fast-growing AI chip industry suggests, or the two sides may simply mirror each other's measures and keep issues running in parallel.