In the midst of US-China tensions, the ex-Arm chief of a Chinese chipmaker leaves.

In the midst of US-China tensions, the ex-Arm chief of a Chinese chipmaker leaves.

In order to distance himself from the Chinese chipmaker that has been the target of US sanctions, Tudor Brown, the former president of Arm Ltd., has resigned from the board of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.

Brown, a well-known engineer who contributed to the establishment of Arm, is departing SMIC after serving on its board for nine years. On his LinkedIn profile, he announced the change.

"Today was a bittersweet day. I left the SMIC board after nine years. The gap between nations has grown much wider," he wrote.

According to this LinkedIn profile, Brown, who is now a director at leading Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo Group Ltd., held a prominent executive position at Arm from 1990 until May 2012. That was before to SoftBank Group Corp.'s 2016 acquisition of the British company.

Requests for comment from Brown and SMIC were not immediately fulfilled.

SMIC is one of many Chinese semiconductor producers struggling with the US's ever-tightening export controls as Washington tries to rein in Beijing's technical advancement. Additionally, as consumers put the boom of the epidemic era behind, worldwide electronics consumption is rapidly declining.

In response, local businesses have tried to create silicon substitutes for American silicon. Although industry analysts warn that may not be based on the same standards applied by much larger rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the Shanghai-based contract chipmaker has succeeded in upgrading its production technology two generations this year to 7-nanometers.