Washington’s tech decoupling bid is self-defeating

Regarding the latest sanctions imposed by the US administration on Huawei, the general view is that Washington’s goal is obviously no longer the security of US infrastructure, but rather to completely crush Huawei. Indeed, it is the political will of the administration to break the current technology supply chains and isolate China. This is because to maintain its edge in science and technology, Washington thinks that the United States should decouple from China, as the US currently dominates the semiconductor, software and operating system industries.

But that is not in line with US enterprises’ interests. Eliminating a major player such as China from the industry will harm US’ interests and affect other players.

So far the largest victims in the US bid to decouple from China in science and technology are the electronics enterprises of Taiwan, as most of their factories are located in the Chinese mainland.

If they are using US technology or equipment, the US administration is forcing these enterprises to relocate their factories elsewhere and find new customers. That means they are being compelled to up sticks with no parties compensating them for their losses that will be incurred in the process.

The US’ decoupling moves will put an end to the strengths these original equipment manufacturing companies have formed through decades of operating in the mainland, forcing the enterprises to face new uncertainties.

But even if decoupling becomes unavoidable, China still has sufficient space to sustain its interaction with the rest of the world, and it will by no means be isolated.

In fact, enterprises of Europe, Chinese mainland, Japan and the Republic of Korea have all heeded the lessons of the sufferings of the Taiwan enterprises, and have been trying to reduce their reliance on US enterprises.

While climbing up the value-added ladder, China is cultivating a more autonomous technological industry chain. In the end, it will not be China that is isolated by the US administrations’ bid to decouple from China in science and technology but the US itself, as there is no doubt that mainland companies are building their own industrial chains and reducing demand for US companies in the process.