US-China tech war & rivalry

Complaints of Chinese overcapacity and dumping may be useful in justifying US, EU subsidies and trade barriers but China’s success is really due to its innovation and scale.

Despite US fears about an overcapacity in Chinese green teach, China’s market share of solar modules and electric vehicles is smaller than that of other competitors. “Cooperative competition” between manufacturers can help both countries synergize their green industry transitions.

Well-designed policies that support innovation and technology diffusion more broadly can lead to higher economic growth across countries. Policies that limit rivals’ access to technology are hardly best for the world.

US presidential candidates lack consistent attitude towards TikTok as legislation that would ban the app passes the House of Representatives. Amid widening technology gap, US must reflect on why an algorithm developed in China gained prominence within the American market.

The US and China should consider how the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and investors can be properly protected in the United States without raising unfair security concerns.

The Western semiconductor landscape is an intertwined global network, fostered by decades of collaborative research and intellectual property sharing. Beijing must learn to marshal its domestic and international resources in a similar way to realise its ambitions.

China’s growing dominance in solar panels, electric cars and batteries is putting US and European manufacturers at a disadvantage and is attracting defensive hostility.

Efforts to keep Chinese electric vehicles out of the US will only hurt American consumers and manufacturers in the long run. Instead, the Biden administration should welcome Chinese carmakers into the US to improve innovation and competitiveness.

While generative AI holds transformative promise for some, for others it heralds large-scale job losses and widespread ethical and security challenges. Even if this technological revolution lives up to its potential, it is clear its benefits will take years to reach consumers and firms in poorer countries.

As the dominant AI power, the US should understand that its latest salvo in the tech war risks undermining technological advances that depend on collaboration as much as competition.

With prospects of a Trump 2.0 looming, the WTO zombified and experts warning of mega threats and a ‘polycrisis’, the absence of cooperation makes one fear the worst.

With industrial policy interventions growing, the transparency provided by a new global tracker will enable organisations like the IMF and WTO to distinguish between the good and bad.