China-US tech war

Zaobao associate editor Han Yong Hong explains why for all of President Trump’s perceived flaws, China may not necessarily prefer a change to the US leadership.

Greater restrictions have been imposed by the US in recent months to choke off US-related chip-making supplies to Huawei. As the noose tightens around its neck, it has to think fast about how it can produce its own chips domestically to minimise the impact.

The pandemic rages on in the US, but the Trump administration is not letting up on its efforts to keep Huawei in check. Will the China-US tech war come to the fore again as the political stakes are raised on both sides?

Yesterday, British Conservative MPs‘ attempt to block "high-risk vendors’" such as Huawei from UK telecommunications networks failed. Amid the battle against coronavirus, China and the US continue their race in 5G technology. China is widely acknowledged to be a leader in 5G, but is the US really falling behind? Professor Zhu Ying weighs up opinions on both sides of the debate.

Senior research fellow Chen Gang says that the Covid-19 outbreak has led the Chinese government to announce that it is facing “wartime conditions” and will be imposing a system of political, economic, social management for extreme circumstances. The world is also taking preventive measures. Such a scenario sees China entering a “pre-decoupling stage” where its resilience and self-reliance will be severely tested.

Chinese observer Zhang Jingwei says China held its own in sealing phase one of the US-China trade deal. But this is just a prelude to the second act as the US heads further into its election year.

Prof Zheng Yongnian bemoans the “culturally-bereft” middle class in China, and labels them the “hooligan middle class”. He opines that the absence of a cultural middle class is the reason why China lacks originality in technology and innovation, why the intellectual community produces little useful knowledge, and why China has not been able to advance towards qualitative economic growth. He offers the solution.

Alex Capri, visiting senior fellow at the NUS Business school, opines that an increasingly hostile rivalry between the US and China spells a tech war that involves greater decoupling of global value chains and entry into a new era of “techno-nationalism”.

In a world ruled by immense technological advancement, a new frontier — Geotech or the nexus between geopolitics and technology — is opening up between key players, China and the US. How their tussle plays out will not only shape the future of the ICT landscape, but the balance of power among nations in the digital age.