What just happened? Not for the first time, China has complained loudly about the US CHIPS Act, calling it "double standards" on the United States' part that shows a "Cold War mentality." A Chinese representative bemoaned the act and the US' recent moves to further tighten restrictions on semiconductor-related exports to China at this week's World Trade Organization's Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

The US Senate passed the CHIPS Act in July last year. President Biden signed it into law a month later, giving the domestic semiconductor-production industry a $53 billion boost in the form of subsidies that will go toward the construction of new fabs.

The South China Morning Post reports that a Chinese representative at the WTO said such industry subsidies allow the US to "interfere with the allocation of market resources" and shows the country's "double standards," a reference to US chip-export restrictions on China.

The representative added that the US' behavior had "severely disrupted the global semiconductor supply chain," and showed Washington's "Cold War mentality and hegemonic behaviors" that damage not just China but also the US and its allies.

China is also angry over the US completing two years of negotiations with the Netherlands and Japan in January that will see the countries impose their own restrictions on the export of chip-manufacturing tools to China. The Netherlands made an official announcement for its new rules in March.

Beijing asked the WTO to review the Japan-Netherlands agreement last month, complaining that it may have violated "the principle of openness and transparency." China has also initiated WTO dispute proceedings against the US over its export restrictions.

This isn't the first time China has spoken out against the CHIPS Act. The country used the same Cold War comparison back in August, while also calling parts of the Act discriminatory against the Asian nation – a section of the CHIPS Act states that any of the tech firms that wish to access the $53 billion fund won't be allowed to make chips on a 28nm or smaller process node in the country.

"It [the CHIPS Act] contains essentially discriminatory clauses in market competition and creates an unfair playing field, which goes against the WTO's fair-trade principles," said Yu Xiekang, vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, at the time.

In April, we heard about the adverse effects that CHIPS Act is having on China's chipmaking ambitions, which partly explains why it's so angry at the US.