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When cutting foreign technology companies from Chinese supply chains, Beijing has long chosen to work obliquely (quanh co, không thẳng thắn) or even secretly (bí mật). Regulators would give executives back-room lectures (rao giảng, lên lớp), weigh them down with excessive red tape (thủ tục quan liêu) or hit them with occasional office raids (kiểm tra đột xuất). Rarely did the government tell a firm outright it was no longer welcome.

But that is what it signaled to Micron Technology in a late-night announcement on Sunday.

The Chinese government barred companies that handle (xử lý) critical information (thông tin quan trọng) from buying microchips made by the Boise, Idaho-based Micron. The company’s chips, which are used for memory storage in all kinds of electronics, like phones and computers, were deemed to pose “relatively serious cybersecurity (an ninh mạng) problems” by China’s internet watchdog after a review.

Micron said it was “evaluating” the government’s finding and “assessing” what it would do next. Analysts said the company, which has been selling chips in China for years, could find itself cut out of future business from Chinese companies.

The openness and speed with which the Chinese authorities took action against Micron — they spent less than two months on the investigation — underscore how far apart the two sides are drifting (trôi giạt) on tech policy.