https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3272831/chinas-basic-self-sufficiency-chip-making-tools-could-come-summer-veteran-says
AMEC CEO Gerald Yin said China is on the verge of basic self-sufficiency in chip-making equipment, but is behind 5 to 10 years in quality and reliability.
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Even if we use the worst interpretation, companies were still making and distributing beastly and reliable chips 10 years ago. I should know, I'm using a 10 year old chip.
EDIT: Specifically, it's the i7 4790k. 4.4 GHz, 4 cores, 8 threads, it may not be as good as chips nowadays but it's never disappointed me in the long time I've had it.
AFAIK it's not just about the chips they sell but more importantly the ones they don't. Their technologies for 7-5 nm chips have lower yields than the Western counterparts. I'm assuming the comparison they drew was over silicon spent, since back then they were using 14 nm.