US-China tech war: Xi Jinping doubles down on ‘technology security’ measures as part of nation’s five-year plan

China’s ruling Communist Party wants to ratchet up tech security measures in line with national development efforts
It stressed the importance of self-sufficiency in advanced technologies amid tensions between Beijing and Washington

US-China tech war

Xinmei Shen

Published: 6:30pm, 19 Nov 2021

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China’s ruling Communist Party wants the country to double down on sweeping tech security measures in line with a five-year national strategy, as tensions between Washington and Beijing show no signs of abating.

“Technology security” is one of the key areas covered by the country’s security agenda from 2021 to 2025, President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the Politburo – the Communist Party’s top echelon – on Thursday, according to meeting notes released by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

This gathering reviewed and discussed the country’s five-year strategic plan for national security, but the full text of the scheme has not been made public.

Tech security forms part of China’s “holistic approach to national security”, an umbrella concept introduced in 2014 by Xi to highlight threats on ideological, economic, political and military fronts.

The Politburo meeting discussed improving China’s ability to govern the areas of biosecurity as well as internet, data and artificial intelligence security – all of which are considered by Beijing as major fields in the future, according to the Xinhua report. It said the meeting concluded that China must strengthen value chain “resilience” and its ability to “resist impacts”, without mentioning a specific case.

The meeting also stressed the importance of tech self-sufficiency, which means China must have control over advanced technologies needed for national development, the report said. The US and China have accelerated their competition to be the global leader in science and technology.

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The Politburo’s security concerns reflect China’s new five-year road map to steer the nation towards self-sufficiency.

Xi, who has been serving as General Secretary of China’s Communist Party since 2012, signalled the drive for self-reliance and domestic production in April last year, when he indicated that the country’s industrial supply chains would not be disrupted even in critical times.

The US government’s trade sanctions on Huawei Technologies Co, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker and formerly China’s biggest smartphone vendor, have been widely cited as a warning shot that the country must develop its own technologies to cut reliance on foreign suppliers.

China, meanwhile, implemented this year new rules and regulations restricting cross-border data flows and enforcing data localisation. These are covered by the Data Security Law, which took effect on September 1, and the Personal Information Protection Law, which was rolled out on November 1.

The tightened data regime, however, has not prevented Beijing from efforts to step up development of digital trade.

US-China tech war clouds SK Hynix plan to upgrade Wuxi memory chip plant

Recent developments that have raised the urgency for China’s tech security involve semiconductors.

Plans by South Korean manufacturer SK Hynix to overhaul a huge factory in the southern city of Wuxi so it can make memory chips more efficiently are in jeopardy because US officials do not want advanced equipment used in the process to enter into China, according to a Reuters report that cited sources.

US semiconductor giant Intel Corp, meanwhile, shelved its expansion plan in the southwestern city of Chengdu because of Washington’s security concerns.

Those situations echo the message of an opinion piece published by the state-run Science and Technology Daily in April. It said: “The work of technology security has never been as important as today, and achieving high-standard technology security has never been as urgent as today.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Xi wants tighter tech security as tensions continue

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