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The US, China and tech won’t follow Trump offstage tomorrow. It will be one of the defining issues of the coming era. To anyone in the West interested in this crucial issue, I’ve a recommendation. Read @danwwang
This thread and Bloomberg article are a very good start 1/10 https://twitter.com/danwwang/status/1339949311765823488
This thread and Bloomberg article are a very good start 1/10 https://twitter.com/danwwang/status/1339949311765823488
Also read @YuanfenYang at @FT). They are two of a handful of people writing in English in western journals who bother to research, understand and explain the complex reality of Chinese tech companies and their changing and different relationships with the Chinese state 2/10
As a result, they both provide compelling evidence that the Trump administration’s haphazard and unilateral campaign against a small number of selected Chinese tech companies has been - on balance - counterproductive, probably working against US & Western long-term interests 3/10
Pointing this out should not be viewed, as it sometimes is over here, as being soft on the CCP’s repressive regime and its odious practices.
A sound, balanced case is set out in @danwwang’s 2019 annual letter. Key quotes: 4/10 https://danwang.co/2019-letter/
A sound, balanced case is set out in @danwwang’s 2019 annual letter. Key quotes: 4/10 https://danwang.co/2019-letter/
“The US responded to the rise of the USSR and Japan by focusing on innovation; ... so far the US is responding to the technological rise of China mostly by kneecapping its leading firms. So instead of realizing its own Sputnik moment, the US is triggering one in China” 5/10
“It’s now a matter of national security for China to strengthen every major technological capability... the strategic solution to Chinese problems cannot be more straightforward: replicate American products, or at least find alternative vendors” 6/10
So, as he rightly says in the Bloomberg piece: “The incoming Biden administration would be better off pouring its efforts into extending the advantages that made the U.S. technology sector the world’s leader to begin with...” 7/10
“... welcoming more immigrants, investing more in basic research and working with industry to cultivate emerging technologies. China can now count on a whole-of-society effort to expand its technological prowess. The U.S. needs one of its own.” 8/10
If the US does this with allies, that will hugely amplify its effect and allies will be eager to follow a US lead. But that’s hard work. I’ve pointed out before that you can’t just wish Five Eyes or ‘D-10’ competitors to China into existence 9/10 https://blogs.bsg.ox.ac.uk/2020/12/21/the-techtonic-plates-begin-to-shift/
But getting the West’s collective act together on strategic tech capabilities and sorting out our own huge market defects is a much better strategy than silly legal swipes at the likes of TikTok and WeChat. 10/10 @YuanfenYang https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/ea9c3d83-a8ab-48ad-bcb8-01a5bed3ec2f
