Currently SMIC is capable to manufacture the 14nm chips. Whether that line of equipment is totally American free is unknown.

No one inside China can do 7nm just yet.

Those two are the goals here for the IC industry inside China, to get closer to the best chips like 7nm because already just one or two generations behind. That is first goal which tends to be a more longer term goal.

The second goal is immediate which is to make the entire domestic IC manufacturing line as American free as possible.

The second point, we must listen to the experts because they actually got an idea of how all those different equipment work, and the quality of the Chinese equipment. The first point, time will tell when China starts competing and tries to produce the fastest chips around.

But ... remember what that Leftist President American Obama did, when they saw China gaining grond in the supercomputing, he banned the sale of the best chip for that. Of course, maybe just a year later, China produces the world's fastest supercomputer, all domestic chips.

This is a decent article about the industry.

China Equipment Suppliers' Threats For Applied Materials And Peers

Sep. 2, 2020 5:02 PM ET