US President Biden is trying to beat China, just like his predecessor Trump with a strong focus on technology. But Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein does not see how the US can overtake China in innovation, he tells at state-owned Global Times. And more about the tense relationship between both economic powers.
The Global Times:
GT: You are very optimistic about China’s technological innovation. According to mainstream US media analysis, President Biden is putting tech at the center of his China strategy. And some say the US is shifting from Trump’s “decoupling” to Biden’s “small yard, high fence” tactic. How do you view this more targeted approach? What could it result in?
Rein: What Trump did to China was awful. What Biden is doing is just as bad. It’s clear that the US wants to destabilize and destroy China’s high-tech industry. They want to control tech standards. It’s not because Huawei or Douyin (Tiktok), or Chinese firms have done anything bad. I’ve seen no evidence yet from the US that these Chinese firms are doing anything overly bad that is not normal in other countries. It’s clear that the US feels that future war is not conventional war, but over controlling tech standards, and whoever dominates the tech world will be the major global superpower.
Over the last five years, China has become the most innovative nation in mobile APPs. Whenever I go back to the US, I feel like I’m back in the dark ages.
China has Alipay and Wechat pay, which I think is one of the reasons why China is able to stop COVID-19. In the US, people are still using cash and physical credit cards. But because of what Trump and Biden have done to China – such as crippling Huawei – Chinese firms have to focus on semiconductor development. Four years ago they didn’t need to, now they have to. This is a do-or-die situation. So you’re going to see the government and business will all have to work together, in order to shed the yoke of American imperialism in technology, it’s a very dangerous situation.
I work with a lot of American software and technology companies. They are my clients. They’re angry, because they sell to Chinese companies. They were generating billions of dollars a year in profits in China. All of a sudden, they are no longer allowed to sell to Huawei. They can’t sell to these companies.
China is the biggest market in the world for Intel, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Those businesses will be gone in five years, because Chinese companies will have to sell what Intel used to sell. So Biden is destroying the American tech sector.
When it comes to semiconductors, China is five to 10 years behind the US. So basically hysteria has captured the US, in DC. You bring up anything about China, automatically Americans go crazy. They think that it’s a new red scare. It’s absurd that people aren’t thinking logically right now.
The US has a rotation between the government and the war machine. Take the new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. After he left the US military in Iraq, he worked for Raytheon, a weapons maker, as a board member. Now he becomes the secretary of defense. It’s rotating between government and weapons, which is very dangerous.
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
Are you looking for more experts on the trade war between China and the US? Do check out this list.
