Technology, power, and uncontrolled great power strategic competition between China and the United States
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Technology, power, and uncontrolled great power strategic competition between China and the United States Xiangning Wu1 Received: 10 April 2020 / Accepted: 13 June 2020 © The Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University 2020
Abstract Great power competition has returned to the global centre stage. However, the new round competition is developing with unprecedented uncertainties. The fierce competition between China and the U.S. has already expanded from trade to high-tech protection, regional strategies, and two development models supported by different values. The fact of more intertwined geopolitics and technology reflects the underlying intensified competition between China and the U.S. and exacerbates the direct competition between the two powers for control over the rules, norms, and institutions that will govern international relations in the decades to come. This paper discusses whether the competition will slip into a vicious conflict between the two sides or even possibly two blocs that hold differentiated ideologies, political values, and remarkably different economic models. Keywords China · The United States · Competition · Technology
1 Introduction Many American experts no longer believe that Western strategies of engagement will lead China evolve into a more liberal, pluralistic, and democratic country (Campbell and Ratner 2018). They argue that because China and Russia increasingly use their power to assert interests and values that often conflict with those of the United States, Washington has awakened to “a new era of great-power competition” (Allison 2020). Therefore, the prevailing wisdom in Washington is that policymakers and experts have settled into a new consensus about China: engagement is dead, long live strategic competition (Ford 2020)! There is no need to argue that great power competition has returned to the global centre stage. The new round of competition is developing with unprecedented uncertainties. The fierce competition between China and the U.S. has already expanded from trade to the protection of * Xiangning Wu [email protected] 1
University of Macao, Macao, China
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China International Strategy Review
cutting-edge technologies, regional strategies, and two development models supported by different values. Geo-economics is the primary arena of great power competition, while geopolitics and technology are increasingly intertwined. Moreover, the two countries’ divergence in social values and political systems is becoming more intense. As a result, technology is now largely politicalized and has become a more prominent element of great power rivalry, and politicians are racking their brains to assess the risks of and exaggerate the severity of conspiracy in high-tech cooperation with China. In 2015, the Chinese government released a strategic plan of Made in China 2025 to reduce China’s dependence on foreign technology and promote Chinese hightech manufacturers on the global market. Seeking “indigenous innovation”
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