Biden admin suppresses China to protect lead
The recent moves by the Joe Biden administration to curb China’s economic and tech rise mirrors a “mentality collapse” among US political elites, who – having identified relations with China as one of “fierce competition” – are now sparing no efforts in the “final China push” to consolidate its edge as an early starter in the world economy.
The US still enjoys an advantage over China in chips, new materials, software and operating systems, yet China has managed to bridge the gap or even surpass the US in 5G, new energy, aerospace, and even niche industries such as drones in the past decades. Such a drastically narrowing gap between the world’s two largest economies has further unnerved Washington, with “China threat” rhetoric resurfacing, taking a shot at the economic sphere.
Facing a potentially whitehot rivalry, China is prepared – and has the ability too – to tackle a rules- based benign competition, observers said. But they also warned Washington to drop its inherent Western prejudice on Beijing, avoiding a vicious life- or- death struggle that could turn the world into a battleground.
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is reportedly leading the drafting of legislation aimed at improving US competitiveness with China, including bolstering the supply of US chips. The plan also lists possible steps directed at trade with China and claims
intellectual property theft, while also seeking to keep the US as the champion in sectors like AI and 5G, Bloomberg reported.
The plan, echoing a slew of moves aimed at cementing the US’ leading position against the China challenge since Joe Biden was sworn into office, marks Washington’s latest strategy to block China’s growth in key high- tech sectors.
The White House said on Tuesday that USChina relations are one of “strong competition” and the Biden administration will take an allied approach to make sure it is coming from a position of strength. The announcement comes a day after Beijing urged Washington to stop interfering in its internal affairs and remove trade sanctions.
“There is a tone shift from the former Trump administration to Biden regarding China – from confrontation to competition, but the substance has not fundamentally changed. China’s rising tech strength and greater role in the world economy has made the US uneasy, who considers China an ‘ imaginary enemy’ that would erode its global leadership and political influence,” said Ma Jihua, a veteran high- tech industry analyst.
“‘ When we were growing up, China was only a developing country that could not compete with the US superpower. How could the country grow in such an exponential manner?’ That is a typical portrait of the bipartisan arrogance of the US political elite, how their pride is knocked down by the reality and how their great anxiety over China’s rise is generated,” Ma said.
Analysts noted that a fresh round of “China threat” rhetoric is building up on the political legacy of Donald Trump, and being hyped in the Biden administration.
Observers noted that Biden may downplay its ambition in low- end manufacturing but scale up efforts and unite allies in choking China in trade as well as high- end sectors like semiconductors.
Benign competition
In 2020, China – being the only major economy in the world to expand – recorded a GDP growth of 2.3 percent, eclipsing an estimated 4.9 percent contraction of the US economy. That would make China’s GDP roughly 70.4 percent of the US, compared with only 11 percent two decades ago.
China’s march into high- end manufacturing industries over the past years is unprecedented. The country has taken the lead in the global 5G push and high- speed rail technology, while making key breakthroughs in aerospace, new energy and the national defense and military industry, some of which are at par with or even better than the US progress, Chinese tech practitioners said.
But China has many shortcomings, such as new materials, biomedicine and chips. China also lags behind in soft power, such as finance and education, said Hu Qimu, chief researcher at the Sinosteel Economic Research Institute.
“China is not afraid of competition as long as it is on an equal footing. The US may have swords, but we also have daggers,” a manager of a Shenzhen- based drone maker, who prefers not to be identified, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The manager added that benign competition between the world’s two largest economies will lift Chinese tech practitioners’ morality and inspire them to strive for the best, thereby injecting new dynamics to global innovation.