US-China tech war: can Washington take a leaf out of Beijing’s plans on strategic technologies?

Analysts say the Trump administration’s new strategic plan reads like a wish list to maintain American advantages in the face of mounting competition from China

Washington’s unhappiness with China in the technology sector is laid bare in new strategy, but document offers no concrete plans to achieve the desired results

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US President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook tour the Flextronics manufacturing facility where Apple’s Mac Pros are assembled in Austin, Texas. Photo: AFP via Getty Images

Published: 9:45pm, 21 Oct 2020Updated: 1:42am, 22 Oct 2020

The White House has published a National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies as a road map to ensure that the United States protects its “technology advantage” across a wide range of fields, from artificial intelligence (AI) to quantum information, in the face of challenges from China and Russia.

But analysts say the US strategy, which includes 11 pages of generalised statements, is more of a wish list from the Trump administration to maintain American advantages. And they say this reflects Washington’s increasing uneasiness with Beijing’s drive to boost home-grown technological innovation, rather than serve as a concrete plan like those introduced by Beijing that mention specific targets, detailed project lists and massive government funding.

Andy Mok, senior research fellow at the Centre for China and Globalisation, a Beijing think tank, said the new strategy was unsurprising given the recognition from the US that China has become a “strategic competitor”, in particular with technology being the main sector of competition.

“The question is, to what degree is the government structured and able to actually implement it? Structurally, China can do these kinds of things because it’s a single-party authoritarian system, but the US is actually designed to prevent this kind of top-down policy implementation,” Mok said, adding that, “It’s a bad way to try to win any competition by trying to copy what your competitors are doing.”

The 20 “critical and emerging technologies” defined by Washington in the strategy published last week include advanced manufacturing, autonomous systems and human-machine interfaces, overlapping with Beijing’s list of “new and emerging technologies” for which China is mobilising resources to seek a global edge. President Xi Jinping urged the country last week to make progress on quantum technologies and to “make the first moves” in key technology areas.