silicon curtain en · NOUN
Etymology
From silicon (“computing”) + curtain, by analogy with Iron Curtain.
Meanings
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(no-plural, qualifier:sometimes preceded by the) A legal barrier to the transfer of technology and the sale of advanced computer equipment between China and the West.
The Silicon Curtain, therefore, is not only about control of infrastructure but also about shaping thought, culture, and identity across populations.
2025, SellWave Audio, Summary of Nexus, A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI:We hear also from Huawei’s founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, who explains that while the company doesn’t want to exist behind a “silicon curtain,” cut off from global suppliers, it is readying its own operating system to replace the one it used to buy from Google.
2019 November 11, Carolynn Look, Jeff Black, “Peering Through the Silicon Curtain Between the U.S. and China”, in Bloomberg News:Pence went on to say that America did not seek a technological decoupling from China. But other parts of that speech—and some of the actions taken by the Trump administration in the months since—conjure images of a silicon curtain descending across the world.
2021 February, Eric Boehm, “A Silicon Curtain Descends”, in Reason, published 2020: