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Don't View Sci-tech Collaboration with Narrow Mindset

Source: Science and Technology Daily | 2023-05-24 20:25:12 | Author: ZHU Rongsheng


State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing on May 8, 2023. (PHOTO: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China)

By ZHU Rongsheng

Recently, high-level officials from China and the U.S. held intensive discussions to bring bilateral relations back on to a steady and upward trajectory. During a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing on May 8, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang emphasized the importance of avoiding a downward spiral in China-US relations. Qin said that the U.S. should not talk about communication while continuously suppressing and containing China.

In recent years, the U.S. government has pursued an offensive foreign policy towards China, including a trade war, and decoupling in high-tech chains, which has inevitably led to a deterioration in China-US relations.

However, the stable development of China-US relations has a deep influence on the global order. One major concern is whether sci-tech cooperation can be reestablished. In the view of the confrontation and prolonged competition between the two great powers, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, has expressed his concern that geopolitical competition will push the world order into two systems, dominated by China and the United States respectively.

While Chinese and U.S. government officials have engaged in strategic communications to maintain a stable relationship, the polarization of U.S. parties could pose significant challenges to those efforts. In the U.S. foreign policy decision-making system that carries out whole-of-government strategic competition with China, the U.S. Congress persistently anchors the narrative of the "China threat" and reinforces the so-called "anti-China Political Correctness of containing China." The key U.S. lawmakers are embarking on a path of dependence against competition with China.

The U.S. Congress had an intensive debate on the "China Competition Act"and promoted the adoption of the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. The "China Competition Act" promotes heavily subsidization to technology industries, precisely decouple technology chains against China, and attempts to lock China in the lower end of the industrial chain and encourage the friend-shoring global supply chains.

On May 3, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer launched an upgraded version of the "China Competition Act 2.0 Initiative" limiting the flow of advanced technology to China, and curtailing the flow of investment to China to ensure U.S. global leadership in high technology. The initiative puts more emphasis on strengthening the technological investment and advantage of the United States through non-market means.

What would it cost for the U.S. to force technology decoupling? In April, IMF released its latest World Economic Outlook report. According to the report, the decoupling policy implemented by the U.S. government and the previous "China Competition Act" in Congress will produce a "slowing growth in cross-border flows" effect. The IMF predicts that this could reduce global growth by two percent. And the U.S. will take a large share of the loss.

In addition to the long-term economic damage, the U.S. Congress's obsession with upgrading the "China Competition Act" will also be detrimental to the development of science and technology, and the growth of social welfare it brings.

In The Chip Wars, Chris Miller brilliantly reveals, from the perspective of history, that the U.S. has always been unable to achieve complete independence in the innovation of high-end technologies such as chips. It has to rely on the lithography machines of the Netherlands, the silicon wafers of Japan, the manufacturing of China's Taiwan, as well as the huge processing and consumer market of China.

This means that only in the "big circle" of the interdependent global system can we enjoy the benefits of scientific and technological progress, and by deliberately creating a "small circle" for the one's own absolute security it is difficult to have a future.

Science and technology is an important engine driving economic and social welfare. Deepening sci-tech ties between countries will improve people's well -being. From the lens of history, both China and the U.S. have benefited from global opening-up and cooperation in science and technology. It is better for policy makers to see the benefits of sci-tech exchanges and cooperation for people of all countries, rather than a zero-sum mentality obsessed with maintaining hegemony.

Zhu Rongsheng is an adjunct research fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy of Tsinghua University

Editor: 汤哲枭

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