Beijing bans supply of Chinese Loongson processors to Russia: Will it cause problems in Russia?

The Chinese authorities have banned the export of Loongson processors based on its own LoongArch architecture to Russia, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported, citing a source close to the Chinese Ministry of Digital Development.

The decision was due to the fact that this technology is of strategic importance for China and is used in the military-industrial complex of the country, the publication said.

The Loongson platform has so far been considered in Russia as a backup option. According to the newspaper, these processors can be replaced with Intel and AMD processors if there are any problems with parallel imports. At the same time it is noted that notebooks based on Loongson processors are still available for orders from Russia, including delivery (for example, from AliExpress).

Supplies of Loongson are banned in other countries

However, according to the source, it is not only Russia that is banned from supplying to other countries. According to some sources, some Russian IT-market participants have already tested these processors, but it is impossible to buy a new batch of them.

Loongson was founded in 2002 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is engaged in creating solutions, which will be an alternative to products of world monopolies - AMD and Intel. As Kommersant notes, last year Loongson Instruction Set Architecture (LoongArch) was presented, which is compatible with programs developed for Intel and AMD processors.

Since, due to sanctions, AMD and Intel processors are currently only imported into Russia through parallel import schemes, Loongson variants could become an alternative in case of a serious crisis with the supply of American chips.

The Chinese ban would not cause serious damage

According to Maxim Koposov, Director of Promobit Company, the decision of Beijing will not cause serious harm, as large-scale projects based on Chinese solutions are not implemented in the country yet. Some experts emphasize that the presence of Loongson laptops on AliExpress may be indirect evidence that the ban may be purely formal.

According to Russian experts, in any case large Chinese companies do not talk about their deliveries to Russia, and even in case of a worse case scenario Russia has options to import such products through small intermediary companies. Moreover, in Russia solutions based on LoongArch architecture are still used mainly in research projects, mass production is still out of the question.

In addition, experts disagree on the reliability and executability of Chinese processors. According to them, it is much easier to organize the supply of Intel chips, the number of which in the world reaches literally billions.