China's Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday that a U.S. order to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to some Chinese customers - as reported by Reuters - proved that the United States was "playing the Taiwan card" to raise tensions in the Taiwan Straits.

Mainland China's chip design firms are anxiously waiting for any further updates from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), after the world's most advanced contract chip manufacturer paused 7-nanometre node services for some artificial intelligence (AI) chip clients in the world's largest semiconductor market by consumption.