Washington and its allies ‘resist China tech boom’

West reacts to nation’s progress in fields such as AI, 5G and quantum computing, study says

China’s advances in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), 5G and quantum computing are reshaping world politics by prompting an increasing US-led effort to counter its growing influence, a new study has concluded.

Describing the situation as “unprecedented”, the researchers said a global “balancing coalition” had been formed in response – by the United States and it allies – which uses sanctions, export bans and controls in key industries such as semiconducting, as well as forming strategic alliances to reduce China’s reach in emerging technologies.

The paper, published in the peer-reviewed Chinese Political Science Review, draws on the balance of threat theory, which says states consider a country’s perceived threat levels alongside its power when making decisions.

“China’s growing power and expansion in emerging [technologies] are key to driving momentum of the global shifts in technology and the geopolitical landscape,” Maria Papageorgiou, study author and a lecturer at the University of Exeter in Britain, said in a university statement.

The development of emerging technologies, which have “unpredictable implications” on national security, “demands a reassessment of the role of technology in international affairs and its impact on the international system,” the team wrote.

China’s advances in fields such as AI and 5G have been accompanied with a global technological spread through initiatives such as the Digital Silk Road, which had made it a competitor and a “threat” to the US, according to the paper.

The authors found that between 2017 and 2023, China’s position as a “near-peer competitor to the US” in technology had driven a policy shift designed to “outspend China and restrict its access to certain critical technologies, new markets and resources required for its technological progress and to counter Chinese technology acquisition”.

In 2021, the US banned investments into 59 Chinese companies in the semiconductor sector, including Huawei Technologies. The following year the Chips and Science Act, which aims to boost investment in the domestic semiconductor industry, came into force.

Other countries “have followed [America’s] footsteps”, the paper said, including an agreement between the US, Netherlands and Japan in January last year to “deny some advanced chip manufacturing machines to China and to restrict sales of equipment for advanced semiconductors to China”.

While China still lagged behind the US in core AI technologies, it was a sector where China had “come to compete with the US”, and begun exporting its technology, they added.

“As a result, over 60 countries exclusively use Chinese AI surveillance technology, most of which are in Africa and Latin America.”