On a briefing call with reporters Thursday, administration officials said the goal is to block the People’s Liberation Army and China’s domestic surveillance apparatus from gaining access to advanced computing capabilities that require the use of advanced semiconductors.The new rules are comprehensive, and cover a range of advanced semiconductor technology, from chips produced by the likes of AMD and Nvidia to the expensive, complex equipment needed to make those chips.“I think the whole policy of the administration can be justified by the fact that if you sell an AI chip to any entity in China for cloud server activities and that’s the alleged end use, it can also be used elsewhere and there's no way around that problem,” said Mathieu Duchâtel, director of the Asia Program at the Institut Montaigne.The new restrictions on chip exports set to go into effect Oct. 21 are: - Using a new foreign direct product rule, the U.S. will block any chips that are used in “advanced computing and artificial intelligence applications,” officials said.The export restrictions are unilateral, and administration officials acknowledge that they will become less effective over time if other countries do not follow suit and enact similar controls."