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Letters | US tech war on China an example of superpower shamelessness
- Readers discuss what the battle for semiconductor supremacy says about superpower behaviour, and the British prime minister’s focus on maths education
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The battle over gaining an edge in the semiconductor industry has revealed just how shameless superpowers are. When it comes to protecting national security and furthering the professed agenda of democratising the so-called undemocratic countries, the United States seems to make little effort to dress up the fact that it is becoming a traitor to the “rules-based” order that it is asking China to adhere to.
Clearly, what the US has been doing is simply trying to maintain its status as the world’s dominant power, at all costs, while trying to keep China safely underdeveloped so it doesn’t threaten that status.
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Yes, the US may want democracy in China, it may want the Chinese people to have a better say in public affairs, but it certainly does not want the Chinese to become stronger collectively or have a better living standard overall, not if this threatens US dominance.
China now plans to subsidise its semiconductor manufacturers and could focus on more mature chip technology, dominating in that area and siphoning off the revenue of competitors abroad focused on cutting-edge semiconductor technology.
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China’s rise from being a backward nation vulnerable to invasion to the superpower it is today over the course of less than a century is understandably alarming for the US. Were China and the US to switch places, China would probably do the exact same things to the US.
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