There are only two weeks left in the year, so unless there is some dramatic surprise coming out of left field in the next 15 days, a domestic 28nm line this year isn't happening.
My understanding is that the domestic 28nm capable DUV machines have already been delivered to initial customers, beginning in the second half of this year.
Achieving mass production of them of course isn't going to happen immediately, and I think it is a bit of a stretch for you to argue that we should be expecting it immediately -- especially if there's a recognition that there may be delays (as with many advanced companies in general).
Further, even if you ignore the motivating effect of US sanctions, the fact remains that China achieved 90nm supposedly in 2016. Even in the normal course of events it should have made some progress in the last five years, yet its most advanced machine is still 90nm and even this machine, seems to have negligible sales. On this board there is a lot of (1) posting rumors and (2) boasting, and I am sure someone will reply to my comment with more rhetoric meant to puff up China and temporarily make us feel better, but the reality is, China's efforts haven't been showing any results. The US is just having a field day shooting at China with no response.
Wouldn't you agree that given the recency of US sanctions and the recency of Chinese efforts to produce a domestic semiconductor industry in response to US sanctions, that it is too early to say that there has not been any results?
Given the timelines of this industry and what we know about the development of equipment and the utilization of new equipment, isn't it more reasonable to wait a few years before calling it so early?
Or putting it another way, do you think it is reasonable to expect any "results" at this stage in a scale that would be reported by the likes of SCMP or mainstream English language media?
Further, the Chinese government far from supporting China's tech sector is cracking down on it and making it hard for it to raise money. Chinese tech companies have taken a bath this year much due to the Chinese government's own policies. In many ways the Chinese and US governments are both aligned and pursuing the same goals against Chinese tech (such as attacking Chinese overseas IPOs). Meanwhile the US is supporting its own tech sector massively with huge bills and all sorts of pressures. Sigh.
I think you are over-generalizing China's "crackdown" on "tech" and falsely equating the government's attitudes to companies like Tencent, Alibaba or Didi
versus SMIC or SMEE, not to mention falsely equating what value those two groups of corporations provide to the overall technology industry (especially in regards to something like semiconductors).
On the contrary I would argue that China is providing massive support to China's tech sector in more productive and foundational domains, but actively deterring the unhealthy and less productive domains of the tech sector from developing in a manner that is rent seeking and societally distorting.
