Yes. It was a matter of time because MOST 7 nm processes are still using older UV steppers which China already has. The trick is multi-patterning which is har

Yes. It was a matter of time because MOST 7 nm processes are still using older UV steppers which China already has. The trick is multi-patterning which is hard but merely requires some math, some programming, attention to detail and good control. 7 nm typically requires 4x multi-patterning or more. Multi-patterning gets you below diffraction limits by reversing the diffraction into multiple pattern offset exposures. What China has is "Deep UV photo lith" which is 193 nm from an ArF excimer laser. Classic diffraction limits would say you can only get line resolution down to half that. With multi-patterning you can go below that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_patterning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_patterning What China still doesn't have is EUV which negates any multi-patterning at 7 nm and you can use milder, low order multi-patterning at smaller nodes. Without EUV, SMIC is mostly locked to 7 nm.