“The major geopolitical significance has been to show that it is possible to completely design [without] U.S. technology and still produce a product that may not be quite as good as cutting edge Western models, but is still quite capable.” Miller says a considerable gap remains between SMIC’s capabilities and those of TSMC, the industry leader that produces the newest chips for companies like Apple.
“humming along” is very different from “not collapsing”.
It’s running and stable enough to avoid a collapse. It’s not even close to a collapse. That’s the situation.