HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on Wednesday that a U.S. order to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to halt shipments of advanced chips to some Chinese customers – as reported by Reuters – proved that the United States was “playing the Taiwan card” to raise tensions in the Taiwan Straits.

Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the United States aimed to worsen the situation with Taiwan and that such a move undermined the interests of Taiwanese companies. She was asked about the reports at a news conference.

The comments are the first official response from China after Reuters reported on Sunday that the U.S. had ordered TSMC to do so. TSMC halted the shipments from Monday, a source familiar with the matter had said.

The chips are often used in artificial intelligence applications and comes as both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the inadequacy of export controls on China and the Commerce Department’s enforcement of them.

TSMC a few weeks ago notified the U.S. Commerce Department that one of its chips had been found in a Huawei AI processor.

Chinese tech giant Huawei, at the center of the U.S. action, is on a restricted trade list, which requires suppliers to obtain licenses to ship any goods or technology to the company.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sonali Paul)