A chip fab makes semiconductors.. A PCB house is different.. they just put semiconductors on PCBs.. You provide the parts..
What university is involved, just curious? Many universities probably have various electronics projects made for them. Some universities probably have lots of boards made for them.
Some universities are probably particularly well informed. others not.If what he said was/is true, the situation may be changing raapidly with regard to Russia,l especially.
He would know where these rules were.. and
why that was the case. (Up to the minute rulemaking)
Or it may be bullshit.
If you really wanted to know, wouldnt there be some rule he could cite? Ask him. The default should be to provide the exact data.. to you of whats going on.
Maybe Chinese businesses have been sanctioned more and there are new rules. I wouldn't dismiss this out of hand, just ask for the specific rules being violated/ Could you please post that info here, too.
Also, any other info you can dredge up..
Without much more information and probably statement from the person making those claims explaining the basis for them, I wouldn't comment. He may be a knucklehead or perhaps what you are working on is subject to export control restrictions for some reason. What may have happened is that your university is taking an overly broad view of export control regulations in order to 'be safe'. However, I would struggle to understand how any purported violation would be deemed to have occurred only upon the delivery of the PCB to you. If uploading your files violated some export control restriction, I would think the violation has already occurred and is reportable now.
In any case, this is all well above your pay grade so to speak. Your education will now move into the area of bureaucracy, institutional interpersonal relations and regulatory interpretation. What may have happened is that your university is taking an overly broad view of export control regulations in order to 'be safe'.