Trump Opens Door Wide for China, but Results are Minimal

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Former US President Donald Trump has opened the door wide to allow the export of advanced Nvidia H200 AI chips to China. The decision followed a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in October 2025 in Busan.

Since then, Trump has appeared to soften his stance towards China and does not want to increase geopolitical tensions. The Trump administration has even suspended some of the strict national security measures targeting Chinese companies.

This attitude of Trump has sparked controversy. Some parties in the Democratic and Republican parties believe that Trump’s weakening stance towards China could endanger national security. However, Trump remains unmoved.

Amid Trump’s softening stance, China is still ‘playing hard to get’. The US Department of Commerce said that so far no H200 chips have been sold to China, even though they have received the green light from Trump.

“To my knowledge, so far there have been no [H200 chips sold to China],” said David Peters, Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement, at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, quoted by Reuters, Thursday (February 26, 2026).

Peters was also questioned by US Republican Representative Bill Huizenga about the smuggling of chips to China. Huizenga referred to a Reuters report that a Chinese AI startup, DeepSeek, was using Nvidia’s most advanced chips to train its latest AI model, which may violate US export controls.

“Yes, there is chip smuggling, it is happening,” said Peters. “We are actively addressing this issue. This is one of our top law enforcement priorities,” he added.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

For information, the H200 chip is the second most advanced processor made by Nvidia that is currently available on the market. Previously, the chip was ‘banned’ from being sold to China because the US was concerned that Beijing would develop AI to strengthen its military.

The sudden decision by Trump to give the green light for H200 exports to China has met with resistance from some parties.

However, government representatives led by the head of the AI division at the White House, David Sacks, said that sending advanced AI chips to China would hinder competitors such as Huawei from doubling their efforts to catch up with the most advanced chip designs from Nvidia and ADM.

On the other hand, hardline China watchers are concerned that the chips could be easily misused for commercial purposes to help improve China’s military capabilities and threaten US dominance in the field of AI.

Reuters reported that so far the shipment of these chips is still uncertain.

Previously, Chinese customs were reportedly reluctant to accept H200 chips in the country. Xi Jinping has not formally stated whether he will accept or reject the chips.

However, in recent years, China has intensified its efforts to develop its own AI chips, amid sanctions from the US. China aims to increase technological independence so that it is free from dependence on the US.

In fact, it was reported that the Chinese government had asked local companies to stop using chips made by the US. The Chinese government is also said to be providing discounts on electricity bills for companies that build data centers with locally made AI chips.

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