Tackling The China Threat

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 Tackling The China Threat

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• US-China technology conflict has only begun: Trump has banned TikTok, ordered TikTok’s owner Bytedance to divest TikTok’s US operations within 90 days, added Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei’s 38 affiliates to the US government’s economic blacklist, and tightened Huawei’s access to semiconductors without special license. US has indicated it will not shy away from putting pressure on Chinese companies including technology giant Alibaba. China is clear it will take all necessary steps to protect the legal right and interests of Chinese companies. 
• Geopolitics and technology:  5G, AI, nanotechnology, and robotics are becoming integral to countries’ geopolitical and geoeconomic agendas and countries are increasingly willing to use new technologies to preserve their power. 
• Trump and Pompeo:

1. In May 2019 Trump signed an executive order that warned about the role of national security issues in US-China bilateral relations and suspension of all ICT trade & technology transfers between US and China.
2. In January 2020, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo asked American technology firms to contemplate the national security consequences of doing business in communist-controlled China. 
3. This aligns with Trump’s agenda of avoiding a supply chain heavily centred in China and building US manufacturing capabilities. 

• Covid-19: The pandemic accelerated the role of technology in shaping geopolitics. Endorsing Trump’s restrictions and bans, Pompeo has said that America is protecting sensitive personal information of Americans and America’s valuable intellectual property including Covid research from being accessed on cloud by Chinese companies such as Alibaba, China Mobile, and others. 
• Not just the US: Other nations are also following suit, and are ready to bear the costs associated with dissociating their supply chains from China as China continues to challenge the global order aggressively. They view it as a critical part of a wider strategy to counter China.
• China: China, which has long been using its technology giants for its national security priorities, will now have to face the music as a large number of nations get ready to decouple their technological supply chains.
• India: Sino-Indian border clash at LAC has made it clear that India, who otherwise may not have taken bold steps to impose technological bans, has to pull out all stops to protect its national sovereignty, integrity, privacy and competitiveness. India will need global partnerships to sharpen its technological edge. 
• Summary: Technology has begun playing a bigger role in shaping geopolitics as countries are more willing to use new technologies such as 5G, AI, nanotechnology, and robotics to preserve and strengthen their national security, sovereignty, and power. Recent actions by the US have made it clear that it wants to dissociate its technological supply chains from China and many other nations are joining the US in doing so. After the border skirmishes with China, India wants to decouple undoubtedly. It will have to restructure its technological base, sharpening which will require global partnerships and short-term costs. It will have to bear the short-term costs for a robust technological foundation in the long run. 

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