Tech openings in China for NZ
China has often been seen as a technology copycat. Advanced technological companies from developed countries have long outsourced their operations to China. Over the years, this has allowed Chinese tech companies to amass significant knowledge.
We have also started to see the presence of Chinese tech companies here in New Zealand, notably Haier and Huawei.
In every industry across the globe, Chinese businesses are emerging as key competitors.
But Made in China 2025 – a more consolidated approach around China Inc. – is driving this move even more dramatically.
China is now building airplanes and warships. It is very advanced in artificial intelligence as well as robotics.
Chinese companies are acquiring other technological companies across the globe, and building strength in value chains.
Made in China 2025 is the first step towards turning the nation into a world technology superpower by 2049, the country’s 100th birthday.
Milestones are being set along the way, with targets in 2020, 2025, then 2035 and finally 2049.
Broadly, Made in China 2025 is about generating innovationdriven development and capability, improving quality and value in technologies, green development innovation, structural optimisation, and talent-oriented development.
The grand strategy may have been conceived as a challenge to the supremacy of the US as a technological leader. Anything that works in China is likely to take off like a rocket due to the critical mass of its population. So US concern is warranted.
We have observed the tightening of regimes around Chinese technological companies in the US – for example, the sanctions issues faced by ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications equipment and systems company, on the grounds of security. The issue has since subsided due to pressures on trade talks between the two countries.
The Made in China 2025 grand strategy has been quietly in motion for the past three years. It now has links with the One Belt One Road Initiative, to which New Zealand is party.
In essence, China is encouraging technological collaboration across the One Belt One Road countries.
But unless New Zealand and China are on the same page around intellectual property sharing, such collaboration will face scepticism.
NZ has relatively strong innovation capabilities, highquality products with a sustainability element, and the ability to provide good systems and training.
China is seeking something similar, but on a much larger scale.
Products aside, there is a lot of room to offer training to Chinese companies.
We should see more connections being built around the movement of talented young Chinese professionals and students, and an influx of hired hands into China to assist with the upskilling.
No doubt the US is concerned about the rise of Chinese technologies in the global arena, despite the repeated message from China claiming that its technology strategy is not about overtaking the US but rather about its own development.
Nonetheless, Chinese moves present opportunities for New Zealand tech to engage and increase this country’s profile in the global technological arena.
Siah Hwee Ang holds the BNZ chair in Business in Asia and is the director of the Southeast Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence at Victoria University.