News is out this morning that some access to US EDA has been restored in China. I can’t find anything from the EDA vendors themselves, but various outlets (here, citing Digitimes, which is behind a paywall; here, a tweet in English discussing a Chinese blogger’s post — worth reading; and others which seem to be rehashing these two sources) are reporting that “access to some vital services appears to have been quietly restored … the turnabout comes within days of a high-level phone call between President Trump and [President] Xi Jinping … several local Chinese IC design engineers and companies have reported that access to Synopsys’ SolvNetPlus platform and Cadence’s Support Portal has now been restored.” No mention of Siemens that I can find.

The tweet translating the Chinese blogger adds, “Synopsys’ SolveNet portal has quietly reopened to mainland users, but only in a limited, “symbolic” fashion—software downloads, technical Q&A, article access, and various functions remain blocked. The blogger interprets this partial reprieve as a diplomatic signal that Beijing‑Washington talks are ongoing and that sustained Chinese pressure is eliciting small concessions. The blogger also believe [sic] this episode also underscores America’s unpredictability; even if today’s access holds, it could disappear tomorrow.”

Yup. Unpredictability now = us.

Both of the sources I’ve been able to see point out the obvious: sanctions, whatever they turn out to be, will only strengthen Chinese companies’ resolve to create their own EDA capabilities.