Should President Trump lose his legal actions and lose the White House, Joe Biden contends he will continue the Trump administration’s efforts to limit China’s rise as a dominant force in global trade.
The U.S. will work with allies to pressure China on trade issues and to limit the influence of Chinese technology, such as Huawei’s 5G design, which many countries are adopting but which a growing number, including the U.S., assert it is a security threat.
The Biden campaign noted a distinction between “techno-democracies,” which use technology to empower citizens, and “techno-autocracies,” which use technologies to control and oppress, Anthony Blinken, the Biden campaign’s foreign policy advisor, told the Wall Street Journal.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have worked together in recent years to limit the spread and influence of China’s technology and the companies that make it.
Blunting China’s influence would help U.S. chip makers ride the rising wave of global investment in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and other emerging technologies.
“We don’t manufacture enough semiconductors here in the U.S.,” said John Neuffer in a WSJ interview, noting that about 75 percent of the world’s chips are made in Asia and just 12 percent in the U.S.
U.S. export controls designed to keep China from using U.S. chips in its technologies have cut into American chip makers’ business, forcing them to shrink their research and development budgets, many have said.
TREND FORECAST: As we have detailed, China has initiated a duel circulation policy, which, in essence, is to create a self-sustaining economy. Thus, any attempt by the U.S. and its allies to thwart its advancement will be limited. The following is from our 10 November Trends Journal:
“Technology self-reliance is the strategic support for national development,” Chinese Communist Party officials said in a 29 October statement announcing a new five-year plan that forecasts a “protracted battle” with the U.S. over global trade.
Developing its own technological capacity is key as the U.S. threatens bans on apps WeChat and TikTok and has laid sanctions on Chinese tech powerhouse Huawei, as a result of which the company soon may run out of chips it uses to make smartphones.
China’s leadership has concluded that the U.S. will not be a reliable partner no matter the outcome of the presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal, and so is placing a stronger focus on domestic companies and markets to drive growth.
Foreign investments and technology will play a reduced role under the new plan.
Party leaders also promised to raise the per-capita GDP to the level of “moderately developed countries” by 2035.