Exclusive | China’s push for self-reliance meets reality of global trade networks

It is not unusual for Chinese leaders to talk about self-reliance. But the past year has seen the term mentioned extensively by President Xi Jinping – explicitly linked to a concerted push for home-grown innovation – underlining the urgency in China to grasp core technologies amid an escalating and all-out rivalry with the US.

Self-reliance was borne out of wartime necessity. About 80 years ago, Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party of China, framed the party’s self-reliance as diametrically opposed to the rival Nationalist Party’s dependence on US military aid to fight the Japanese invaders.

Xi’s frequent calls for self-reliance in modern times also come at a time of crisis, with the US shifting from a policy of engaging China to containing it, encapsulated in last month’s executive order by President Donald Trump that effectively banned Chinese telecoms giant Huawei from accessing US supply chains.

“Technological innovation is the root of life for businesses,” Xi said on a visit to Jiangxi province in May. “Only if we own our own intellectual property and core technologies, can we produce products with core competitiveness and [we] won’t be beaten in intensifying competition.”

Xi did not directly mention the US or the trade war – currently at an impasse after the 11th round of talks ended in Washington without a deal. However, the emphasis on self-reliance was undoubtedly a rallying call to the country to prepare to fend off long-term challenges from the US, especially in the technology arena.

“It’s a wake-up call to the mindset prevailing in China for decades that globalisation is the main theme,” Wang Yiwei, professor with Renmin University said. “The environment has changed tremendously. The US wants to contain China’s technological development and China will not wait to be beaten. It will strive to develop its own core technologies.”