Global prospects dim for China’s tech champions as great powers clash
SHANGHAI: Huawei Technologies’ founder Ren Zhengfei’s global ambitions are marked in bricks and mortar at a new company campus in southern China, where the buildings are replicas from European cities.
Zhang Yiming, founder of Bytedance, the operator of short video app Tiktok, has plastered his Beijing headquarters with posters including a cover of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s book “How Google Works”, and has long said he will build a global firm that can compete with US tech giants.
But the two companies which best exemplify China’s ambitions to challenge US tech dominance are now stymied by strains in relations between China and countries including the United States, India, Australia and Britain.
Chinese companies with world-beating technology — including drone-maker DJI, artificial intelligence firms Megvii, Sensetime and iflytek , surveillance camera vendor Hikvision and e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group — are also among those losing access to markets.
Smaller companies are being forced to re-think too.
“What we are experiencing now is unprecedented,” said a Chinese startup founder who has operations in the United States and India but asked not to be identified as he is now considering walking away.
“My entrepreneurial spirit has been dampened due to all this, let alone global ambitions.”
It’s a big shift from even a year ago, when the Us-led trade war with China and security concerns about Huawei were having little impact on most Chinese tech champions.
Sensetime and Megvii, backed by US investors, were eyeing big IPOS. Bytedance’s Tiktok unit was enjoying unfettered global growth. Alibaba was touting the global prospects for its cloud business, and DJI was consolidating domination of the drone business.
US President Donald Trump has ratcheted up anti-china rhetoric as he seeks re-election and Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken a tough line. Tensions have also risen between Beijing and other countries over new security laws passed for Hong Kong, and a border skirmish with Indian troops led to an India government ban on 59 Chinese apps.
Now China’s top tech players are having contracts cancelled, products banned and investments blocked, with more restrictions on the horizon.
Bytedance could be forced to sell Tiktok as Washington considers following India in banning the short video app, a global product that analysts say is worth at least $20 billion. — Reuters
THE TWO COMPANIES WHICH BEST EXEMPLIFY CHINA’S AMBITIONS TO CHALLENGE US TECH DOMINANCE ARE NOW STYMIED BY STRAINS IN RELATIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND COUNTRIES INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES, INDIA, AUSTRALIA AND BRITAIN.