Apple's memory woes are continuing, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has urged Apple not to buy Mac memory chips from Chinese suppliers, despite the continuing supply crisis.

Apple has been testing memory chips from the controversial CXMT as a way to ease the current global chip shortage. However, the politically sensitive move has now led to a warning from the Trump administration, delivered by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday about the warning to avoid purchasing Chinese chips. Following a tour of the new Apple Advanced Manufacturing Center in Houston, Lutnick told the media, "The Trump administration is not in favor of that."

Lutnick added there must be other ways to fix the problem, but stressed "It's not great American companies using Chinese memory."

When asked if the message was provided to Apple, Lutnick was curt but affirmative, stating "Plainly."

Releasing the strain

Lutnick's warning is about Apple's attempt to work around the high prices and tight supplies of memory affecting the whole tech industry. As part of this, Apple has explored the possibility of securing supplies from Chinese memory suppliers such as CXMT.

The problem is that CXMT is on the Chinese Military Company Blacklist, or 1260H list. The list is a collection of companies that the Pentagon believes have links to the People's Liberation Army and could be considered a risk to U.S. national security.

While the list doesn't stop Apple from buying chips from CXMT, it will affect sales. The Defense Department is not able to make agreements with companies on the list, nor use products or services from third parties that use their components.

There's also the problem of murmurs that CXMT would be put onto the "Entity List," which would block all trade with the company completely. Even if Apple gained supplies from CXMT and ignored the 1260H list's consequences, a shift of CXMT onto the Entity List would cut off that supply line once more.

That would put Apple back at square one.

A lot of backlash

Apple petitioned the Trump administration to allow it to buy Mac RAM chips from CXMT on June 27. Since then, it has secured chips for testing and has put them through their paces.

However, there has been considerable pushback against the plan. In July, U.S. memory maker Micron lobbied the White House, alleging that a move permitting the sales from blacklisted Chinese companies would be incredibly harmful.

To Micron, doing so would harm the U.S. tech manufacturing industry in the same way that China decimated U.S. steel and manufacturing plants.

The Republican chair of the House China Committee, John Moolenaar, said it would be a "grave mistake" for Apple to make the deal back in June.

In July, Apple was sent a letter from U.S. senators attempting to convince the iPhone maker to back away from the proposal.

On CXMT's side, it has rejected a demand from Apple for a discount. It wants to be paid what Apple pays Samsung for memory, reducing Apple's benefit of securing the new supply line.

To Apple, though, it can at least point to a need for fairness from the U.S. government on the matter.

On August 10, it was reported that rivals HP and Acer already use CXMT memory for hardware sold outside the United States. While it is unclear if HP or Acer asked permission before doing so, they both carried on without penalty.