"트럼프, 시진핑 회담서 '젠슨황-中간첩 불륜' 거론 안할듯"

U.S. President Donald Trump will not bring up Nvidia CEO's alleged involvement in Chinese espionage at his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, U.S. officials said.

A U.S. government official told Britain's Financial Times (FT) on the 14th (local time), "We do not expect President Trump to bring up the Alice Hwang issue."

Alice Huang is a former executive of Megaspeed, a Singaporean company that was an Nvidia customer, and was revealed to have had an affair with former Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

U.S. intelligence officials suspect that Alice Huang may be a spy captured by Chinese intelligence agencies. Megaspeed is also suspected of exporting Nvidia semiconductors to China, bypassing U.S. export control regulations.

Restricting the export of advanced semiconductors to hostile countries is a key policy to maintain America's technological superiority. However, as the U.S. Department of Commerce is known to have delayed the process of listing Megaspeed on the list of companies subject to export controls, claims are being raised that Commerce Secretary Howard Rutnick is responsible. Once included in this list, companies must obtain permission from the U.S. government to export semiconductors.

However, U.S. officials drew a line saying that Nvidia-related issues are separate from the U.S.-China summit.

Another U.S. official said, “The Nvidia situation should not have any impact on this visit.” He said, "In all discussions and negotiations with China, the issue of U.S. export controls is not a subject of negotiation. Export controls are a national security issue decided through interagency consultations, and I do not expect this issue to be addressed in conversations with the Chinese side during my visit to China."

This can be interpreted as a result of the Trump administration's emphasis on the principle of not treating semiconductor export controls as a bargaining chip with China, as well as the judgment that the Jensen Huang scandal could place unnecessary burden on the summit. China strongly denies Alice Huang's spying allegations.

It's also possible that President Trump himself has allowed Nvidia to sell certain models of chips to China despite warnings from public hardliners about national security threats. Since they have already shown a certain degree of flexibility in their semiconductor export policy to China, they may have judged that there would not be much benefit even if they raised suspicions of espionage at the summit.

President Trump will visit China to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to be held in Shenzhen, China from the 17th to the 19th, and will hold a bilateral meeting with President Xi on the 19th. The first ever trilateral summit between the US, China and Russia, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, will also be held.