US harms itself viewing China’s high tech surge as a threat
As its high- tech surges, China has been regarded as a more formidable rival by the US. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Unable to buy US military drones, allies place orders with China” deemed China’s drone exports a threat to US interests, claiming it’s a strategic and commercial blow to the US that drones exported by China have been seen in some Mideast and African countries, including US allies.
China’s plan for artifi cial intelligence ( AI) development, which aims to build the country into a major center for AI innovation and a global leader in AI technology and applications by 2030, was interpreted by US media outlets as a challenge to American dominance in the sector.
China has been committed to promoting high- tech development and becoming a science and technology giant in recent years. Vigorous efforts were made to advance development in fi elds including military technology and AI, and a series of remarkable achievements have been made. However, China’s endeavor caused anxieties among some Western countries, especially the US. As the world’s high- tech hegemon, the US has kept a wary eye on China’s high- tech development. Almost every achievement China has made is interpreted as a challenge or threat to the US. China- US cooperation in the high- tech sector is also on a bumpy road as Washington has set numerous bans on the export of high- tech products to China citing unwarranted national security concerns.
High- tech supremacy is an important pillar of US hegemony and Washington won’t easily relinquish it to others. But that doesn’t mean it is a justifi ed excuse to block, or suppress, China’s high- tech progress. China’s high- tech achievements are an inevitable result of the country’s economic, technological and military development. They are not strategic designs targeted at a certain country.
Facts have proved that a long- term US blockade on high- tech exports to China has failed to prevent China from making progress and breakthroughs in the high- tech sector, but instead stimulated China’s resolute independent innovation. China in 2016 built the world’s fastest supercomputer, a monolithic system with 10.65 million computing cores built entirely with Chinese microprocessors. The achievement came just one year after a US government decision to deny China access to Intel’s fastest microprocessors.
The US is in fact harming itself by viewing China’s high- tech development from a zero- sum mentality and banning exports to China. Its restrictions on high- tech exports to China have worsened its trade imbalance with Beijing. The US has its own advantages in the high- tech sector. It should strengthen cooperation with China and compete with China in an open way, which would be in both countries’ interests.