China’s computing must get faster as economic rivalry intensifies, but ‘it will be a long process’, warns former bank head
- At risk of falling further behind the US in computing power, China’s only option is to urgently ramp up its related infrastructure, urges prominent tech advocate
- From AI like ChatGPT to ride-hailing services, high-speed computing capabilities are at the core of China’s technological self-sufficiency drive
The speed at which computers can perform complex calculations and process data has become so blazingly fast that keeping up with the ever-expanding limits of computing power is a critical component in the economic rivalries between nations.
As such, this global race to build world-leading computing infrastructures demands an urgent and rapid response from Beijing, according to a former senior banker.
China must rally the resources of both local governments and corporate giants to play catch-up, as the United States has attained data dominance and may raise technological barriers amid geopolitical tensions, according to Li Lihui, former president of the Bank of China, one of the country’s Big Four state-owned banks.
“[This] requires us to keep investing huge amounts of financial and human resources … and stay patient, since it will be a long process,” he said at a forum over the weekend.
Li, now chairman of private think tank New Financial Alliance (NFA), is a prominent advocate for the use of blockchains and advanced technologies to revamp the Chinese economy.