As the Chinese government is reportedly telling its telecoms operators to replace foreign-made semiconductor chips with domestic alternatives (see separate article,) it continues the trend for isolationist policies from Chinese and US governments. While the latest move will no doubt impact the likes of Intel and AMD, as far as China’s operators are concerned, capex spending is on a downward trend regardless. The recent annual reports from China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom show a fall in capex spending for this year. The drop is the steepest for China Unicom which plans to drop capex spending by 12% in 2024 to CNY 65 billion ($8.9 billion). “With 5G network coverage nearing completion, the Company’s investment focus is shifting from…