Apple sources displays for its products, including iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Watches from multiple companies. One of its biggest suppliers is Samsung Display, which provides majority of panels, especially for iPhones and iPads. Well, a new letter sent by Congress to the Department of Defence could force Apple to stop using displays from China’s BOE and Tianma, which would make the Cupertino-based tech giant to rely more on the South Korean firm.

The Select Committee On The Chinese Communist Party has sent a letter to the United States Department of Defence informing that two of China’s display-manufacturing companies, BOE and Tianma Microelectronics, are threat to US’ national security and economy. As such, it has asked the agency to place both the companies on the DoD 1260h blacklist, which will stop the US-based firms to stop trading with the two Chinese companies.

Congress points out that Chinese companies are dominating the LCD and OLED display market

The chairman of the committee, John Moolenaar, wrote “The PRC engages in aggressive state-sponsored subsidization of the two primary display technologies: liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. By doing so, it drives non-PRC companies from the market and bolsters PRC dominance of the industry.

In LCD, the industry’s legacy technology, the PRC’s share of global production capacity has grown from 0% in 2004 to 72% today, and non-PRC manufacturers are rapidly exiting the market due to their inability to compete… A similar evolution is now underway in OLED, the current generation of display technology; the PRC’s share of global production capacity has grown from 1% in 2014 to 51% today.”

US military relies on these display technologies, putting it risk

The press release says  “While LCD and OLED are common technologies found in televisions and similar devices, Moolenaar highlights the technologies’ critical role in our own weapon systems and notes that BOE and Tianma have accumulated large amounts of the global display market through state subsidies, posing a supply chain risk for our military. Moreover, Moolenaar exposes BOE and Tianma’s deep connections to the People’s Liberation Army through their parent companies and participation in military-fusion zones in China.”

The story continues after the video…

BOE and Tianma are tied to People's Liberation Army (PLA)

He added “Most alarmingly, both companies are tied to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and support its efforts. Tianma is identified by the U.S. Department of State as a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC)… BOE was initially founded in 1993 as a military and defense supplier, and it is integrated as at least a subprime contractor for the PLA; many of its customers are known PLA suppliers, such as HiSense.”

If BOE and Tianma are banned in the US, Apple will be forced to rely more on Samsung Display

If the Department of Defence puts BOE on the 1260h blacklist, then Apple will not be able to source displays from the Chinese companies for its products, including iPhone (especially the iPhone SE 4). In that case, it will have to get the order fulfiled by its other two display suppliers, Samsung Display and LG. If that happens, Samsung’s revenue and profit will increase, helping the company overcome the rough patch that it is going through.

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