Read on Twitter
Thread: US risk abandoning the open internet and giving huge gift to China. Example of naive weaponized interdependence and how it could backfire. https://www.state.gov/announcing-the-expansion-of-the-clean-network-to-safeguard-americas-assets/
2. Important to state upfront that Chinese digital platforms present new challenges to US security and they should be addressed. But the new State Department clean network plan is decoupling folly at its best. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-06-03/folly-decoupling-china
3. While the specifics are still unclear, it seems like it would fundamentally threaten the open internet. It would ban direct internet traffic between the US and China. It would also ban US companies from providing apps to Chinese manufactured smart phones.
4. Economically, this would be a gift to China as it would seed many third country (e.g. Africa) markets to Huawei and China and hurt the ability of Silicon Valley to compete. https://www.cnet.com/news/not-just-huawei-guide-china-biggest-best-smartphone-makers-lenovo-meizu-xiaomi-oppo-vivo-oneplus/
5. At the same time, it basically gives cover to any authoritarian government or US competitor that wants to implement data localization. https://www.ft.com/content/6f0f41e4-47de-11e8-8ee8-cae73aab7ccb
6. This will hurt both the US consumer and US business. At the same time it threatens the fundamental openness principle of the Internet risking a splinternet. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/the-splinternet-an-internet-half-owned-by-china-and-the-us.html
7. The administration seems to be implementing a crude nationalist version of weaponized interdependence in order to prevent China from achieving a hub position in telecommunications. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/isec_a_00351?journalCode=isec
8/But as @henryfarrell argue, there is another path, which recognizes the vulnerabilities of global information markets but also maintains their economic benefit. The key is to focus on resilience not brute reshoring/economic nationalism. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/04/this-is-what-the-future-of-globalization-will-look-like/
