Chinese Tech Firms May Suffer Losses Due to South Korea–Japan Trade Row

Jun Iwamatsu (front L), a director of trade control policy division at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) holds a meeting with his South Korean officers (R) on the imposed restrictions, in Tokyo on July 12, 2019. (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images))

Japan recently set restrictions on tech material exports to South Korea that could deal an inadvertent blow to China’s tech sector.

The export restrictions, announced July 4, are for three materials—photoresists, hydrogen fluoride, and fluorinated polyimides—which are key in the manufacture of electronic chips. Those chips are the bulk of what South Korea’s tech sector—dominated by chip and display makers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics—produces.