{"text":[[{"start":8.4,"text":"US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has blamed Howard Lutnick’s commerce department for failing to ban exports of Nvidia’s chips to Megaspeed, the Singapore-based company linked to an alleged Chinese spy."}],[{"start":19.36,"text":"Asked whether there had been co-ordination in Washington on Megaspeed’s inclusion on the US trade blacklist, Bessent told CNBC on Friday that Treasury was among several other agencies that were “in favour of putting Megaspeed on the entity list for months”."}],[{"start":35.6,"text":"“But Commerce has the pen . . . and you will have to ask them about their internal process,” he added."}],[{"start":41.12,"text":"The salvo from the Treasury secretary threatens to further stoke tensions within the Trump administration over how Nvidia was allowed to export chips to a company linked to Alice Huang, whom US authorities believe was working with China’s intelligence service."}],[{"start":55.76,"text":"The US has for more than a year been investigating whether Megaspeed was smuggling Nvidia chips into China."}],[{"start":61.874,"text":"Jensen Huang resigned as chief executive of Nvidia on Thursday in a dramatic fall from grace after he admitted to an extramarital affair with the Megaspeed executive."}],[{"start":71.253,"text":"Lutnick, the commerce secretary, has been under growing pressure in Washington to explain how his agency allowed chips to be exported to a company linked to an alleged Chinese spy."}],[{"start":81.062,"text":"Earlier this week, the FT reported that the commerce department had delayed efforts to add Megaspeed to Washington’s blacklist of companies the US considers a risk to national security."}],[{"start":91.464,"text":"Asked about reports that he confronted Lutnick on the issue, Bessent said on Friday: “We don’t repeat conversations in the Situation Room.”"}],[{"start":99.958,"text":"“I am frustrated when President Trump made it very clear that China should not receive any Nvidia chips above H100s, and so any leakage is very frustrating because it hurts our great companies, and the AI race gives the Chinese an advantage,” Bessent said."}],[{"start":114.133,"text":"Asked whether the US approach to chip exports should change, Bessent said: “I think we have all the authorities that we need. They just need to be implemented.”"}],[{"start":121.36,"text":"US companies require licences from the commerce department to export goods to companies on the so-called entity list, as part of Washington’s attempt to stop cutting-edge technologies falling into the hands of the Chinese military."}],[{"start":134.148,"text":"Outraged Republican legislators on Thursday called for Lutnick to testify before Congress, while top Democrats demanded that he preserve documents related to the case for investigations."}],[{"start":144.443,"text":"The renewed pressure on the Trump administration from lawmakers comes just a week after Republicans lost control of both the US Senate and House of Representatives in the midterm elections."}],[{"start":154.7,"text":"Lutnick, a former chief executive of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has overseen many of Trump’s most contentious trade war tariffs, including steep duties on steel, copper, aluminium, lumber and cars."}],[{"start":168.217,"text":"Bessent also raised questions around whether Nvidia knew its client and whether it made a “robust effort . . . to make sure that there was no leakage”. “It’s important that anyone at the company there be held accountable for that,” he added."}],[{"start":185.68,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794583565_1508.mp3"}