Donald Trump’s latest headline-grabbing action against China is aimed at negating the Asian power’s push toward self-sufficiency in the $400 billion semiconductor industry. But its effectiveness is being questioned almost before the ink is dry, according to a growing chorus of voices in Washington and interviews with Chinese technology executives.

The U.S. is blacklisting Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. along with more than 60 of its peers deemed a threat to national security, depriving them of the American inputs from software to chemicals required to make their products. The key provision of the action against China’s largest chipmaker is a restriction on selling equipment and other items used to fabricate advanced chips, an area U.S. suppliers dominate.

But in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Tuesday, Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Michael McCaul warned the action was “utterly ineffective” and fell short of crippling Beijing’s drive into next-generation semiconductors.

The pair echo the concerns of industry executives and government officials who argue the White House should do more to hamstring SMIC, one of several companies instrumental to Beijing’s ambitions of supplanting American dominance in a plethora of spheres including semiconductors. Arguably one of the world’s most important industries, the ability to manufacture semiconductors is crucial for everything from artificial intelligence and data centers to autonomous cars, smartphones, and advanced weapons systems. SMIC’s shares rose as much as 1.3% in Hong Kong Wednesday.

In his bid to halt China’s semiconductor ambitions, Trump is turning to some of the same tools deployed against Huawei Technologies Co. Those measures succeeded in stunting Huawei’s growth, but failed to decisively undermine its lead in 5G networking or kill its giant smartphone division. Like its larger compatriot, SMIC anticipated the U.S. action, stockpiling as much as 18 months’ worth of chemicals and other raw materials to keep its machines humming, people close to the company said. And it hiked its capital spending budget twice this year to $6.7 billion before taking it back citing U.S. regulatory uncertainty.

“We are deeply concerned that the rules pursuant to the Entity Listing for the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Company (SMIC) will be utterly ineffective in addressing this growing national security threat,” Rubio and McCaul wrote. “We are deeply concerned that SMIC’s placement on the Entity List by the Bureau of Industry and Security was done for show.”

Beijing has long worried a concerted White House campaign to contain the nation’s tech ascendancy — which has already shaken up the supply chain for everything from iPhones to laptops — will kneecap its rapidly developing chip industry. Washington had already targeted Huawei’s secretive HiSilicon division, while SMIC was grappling with rules introduced earlier this year designed to cut off supply to China’s military. In response, Beijing is said to be preparing broad support for so-called third-generation semiconductors and conferring the same kind of priority on the effort it accorded to building its atomic capability.

Read More at: Bloomberg