America And Its Allies Pave the Way for China to Become A Worldwide Chief
By Michael Taylor
There is a clear and present danger of an imminent war looming on the horizon between the Western world and China.
It is not going to be a war of battleships and nuclear submarines, but that of technological innovation, artificial intelligence, genetic modification, data spying, facial recognition, satellite surveillance, and a race to conquer new and possibly habitable planets in outer space.
This war of innovation is ongoing as we speak. It is a war between the Western world’s eroding technological advantage and the rise of China’s technological might.
So, who’ll win this war of innovation?
Will it be Europe and the United States, who have always been the technology leaders? Or will it be China that is now claiming the mantle of technological leadership by investing hundreds of billions of dollars in robotics, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, green energy, and much more?
The US and its European allies are declaring a trade and sanctions war, while China is playing a more sophisticated game. It is using technological prowess as a way of advancing its goals without having to resort to battle.
Chinese companies are selling 5G wireless infrastructure around the world, harnessing synthetic biology to bolster food supplies, buying into Africa, and racing to build smaller and faster microchips, all in a bid to grow China’s technological supremacy.
And what is Europe and the United States doing to counter that? They’re calling for greater government protectionism — another word for more isolationism.
But will the odds change? In whose favor? And what will happen if they do?
China’s Trove of Knowledge About Us
There is one major reason why the Western world is losing ground to a dictatorship and a technological thief like China — the interests of the private sector and their democratically-elected governments are no longer aligned. Today, they are further apart than ever.
This has been happening while China is slowly and gradually evolving, behind the scenes, from a country that steals and imitates technology to one that pioneers and champions it.
This did not happen overnight, by accident or chance.
For the past ten years or so, China’s share of global technology spending has grown from under five percent to over 23 percent. If this continues at current rates, China will overtake both the United States and Europe in spending on research and development by 2025.
And while Europe and the US are struggling with debt and social decay, China’s despotic government is building entirely new cities based solely on technology and innovation. China’s investment in 5G technology and in artificial intelligence, which has already paid off, is staggering proof of that.
This comes at a time when China has provided the necessary funding and access to data to give rise to powerhouse companies, like Alibaba, an e-commerce giant; Tencent, the developer of WeChat; Baidu, an artificial intelligence and internet company; DJI, a leader in the consumer drone market; and SenseTime, which provides facial recognition technology for China’s video surveillance network and is said to be the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence company.
This is all happening while Europe and the United States are helplessly watching China’s technological advancement and innovation breakthroughs through a military lens, while Chinese companies have succeeded in interweaving a secret global web of data-gathering applications that collect our private information and hand them over to their oppressive country and tyrannical regime.
This is why China now has a trove of knowledge about us, while our Western bureaucratic governments are still monitoring the situation from afar, endlessly debating possible scenarios and praying for alternative solutions.
In other words, they are helpless; while China, a dictatorial power, is seemingly winning the war of innovation.
China’s recent breakthroughs in biotechnology will soon help solve some of humanity’s most vexing challenges, from disease and famine to energy production and climate change. It has grasped the gene-editing tools and managed to encode video in the DNA of bacteria. It even developed a new way of manufacturing nylon with genetically-engineered microorganisms instead of petrochemicals.
The economic implications of such revolutionary innovations on the Western world are going to be disastrous.
McKinsey, a global research institute, estimated the value of biotechnology’s applications at nearly $4 trillion over the next 20 years. And China is making sure it will have the biggest share of that market.
All this is happening, while the Western world is watching — eyes wide open.
China’s Hi-Tech Is Its Trojan Horse
What our governments are failing to realize is that there are too many reasons for them to worry and to be skeptical when an autocratic country like China genetically-engineers DNA and wins the race into space in its quest for technological supremacy.
This is a recipe for a disaster — and no one is doing anything about it.
And while the Western world expresses its concern over China’s defense capabilities, they fail to realize that the challenges they’re facing are much broader. China’s ambition for technological supremacy is not simply aimed at achieving battlefield advantage; but rather shifting the battlefield ground itself.
China is in the process of creating a new world order in which it would compete for global supremacy without a single shot fired.
What are Western countries fail to realize is that China’s hi-tech is its Trojan horse. And it is only a matter of time before China achieves world domination.
What an absurd situation we have put ourselves in, and what a narrow view of the world we have managed to develop. Not to mention the havoc we created by paralyzing the 5G network, regardless of its benefits or the lack of them.
And all we hear from our democratically-elected governments today are promises to “build back better” and to restore global leadership.
How? Nobody knows! And no one has the answer to that.
Chinese Language Know-How Threats
America has promised some $300 billion in R&D spending. This appears to be a good start. But will it fill the gap in private-sector investment — that’s too early to tell.
To win the war of innovation, the Western world will have to fundamentally revisit its technological challenges by revamping its political and social divides before embarking on a quest to originate and innovate.
To succeed, the US has to abandon its focus on the military and shift to non-defense spending on AI-related research and development by doubling its R&D budget to $32 billion a year by 2026.
Other recommendations made by the National Security Commission on AI, a body headed by ex-Google chief Eric Schmidt and ex-Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, who served under Presidents Obama and Trump, focus on restricting China’s ability to manufacture state-of-the-art computer chips. It advises that the US must keep at least two generations ahead of China’s microelectronics manufacturing capabilities.
While much of the 750-page report focuses on how to counter China’s ambition to become a world leader in AI by 2030, America is expressing its fears to lose its military-technical superiority in the coming years.
The problem with America and the rest of the Western world is that they fail to act with speed and to carry out changes while there is still a window open. In comparison, China needs no president or congress approvals to act, as it relies solely on the commands of one man — Xi Jinping, a tyrant, and a dictator.
And while the US Congress is embroiled in endless debates on whether computer-chips would facilitate China’s human rights abuses, Beijing is going ahead with plans to produce 70% of locally-used chips by 2025 and buying up as much as 90% of the rest. Meanwhile, the US Congress is conducting endless reviews of President Jo Biden’s $37 billion plan to boost the local output of semiconductors much needed by the automobile industry. In contrast, China’s semiconductor-makers have been seeking out second-hand photolithography equipment to do this — as simple as that! End of story.
Just like the Trump-era, America’s new government under Biden seems to be more interested in combating Chinese language know-how threats, which have been described as a national-security menace, rather than seriously taking genuine objections by U.S. companies who are concerned that the rule might stifle innovation and harm competitiveness.
The rule is expected to affect thousands and thousands of American companies, doubtlessly requiring them to get authorities clearance for purchases and offers involving refined know-how with what the US government calls an “overseas adversary.”
And while the US government is worried about the safety and financial dangers posed by Chinese language tech tools producers and web platforms, as many as 4.5 million US corporations of all sizes fear they will be impacted by the rule, with compliance costs expected to attain a staggering $52 billion within the first year of implementation, and $20 billion each year thereafter.
Democracy Vs. Autocracy
The problem with Western governments is that they are portraying their relations with China as a conflict of values: democracy vs. autocracy. Such rhetoric obscures private sector companies’ call to work collectively on technological know-how.
By combining efforts, the U.S. and its allies believe they can outspend China, whose research-and-development finances now match the US’s and its allies and pave the way for the dictatorship to become a worldwide chief.
The US and its allies have missed out on one important fact — with technological know-how, they must be nimble. But with lengthy processes in place and an ever-narrowing vision, China will outsmart its Western rivals in no time.
Beijing has loads of levers to tug. China is the world’s main provider of uncommon earth minerals, which are indispensable for producing cell phones, electronics, and army tools.
This is one reason why China is planning for a world without American technology. It is plotting a path to go at it alone, vowing to spend big to fill gaps in innovation and avoid dependence on the United States and others.
China is freeing up tens of billions of dollars for its tech industry to borrow. Its ambition is to become an innovative country.
That’s it!
In contrast, the United States, which has already climbed to the summit, wants to kick away China’s ladder.
But what America does not realize is that the road to the global peaks of technology is distinctly uphill.
