China will Beat USA in Tech Race
China is going to beat the U.S. in a running competition to dominate “the tech world,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said during a private meeting this week.
“The Americans have run the tech world for decades. Microsoft, Google, Apple, blah, blah, blah — we’re used to them winning. No, no, no,” Johnson said during a dinner party Wednesday, in a discussion that was recorded and then published by Buzzfeed. “The Chinese are about to win.”
China’s technological advances are a point of concern as well as frustration in American circles, where China’s rapid development as the product of “stolen technology” and unfair trade practices. If U.S. policymakers haven’t conceded defeat on the topic, however, Johnson’s comments nonetheless suggest that a key American ally sees the U.S. as a losing bet in at least one area.
“They’ve got 5G,” Johnson said of China. “They’ve found out a way. Everybody’s going to be getting stuff on their gizmos through the Chinese system and not the American system. So, watch out for that one.”
5G is a reference to the next generation of high-speed Internet connectivity, which would offer economic and national security benefits to the country that acquires the capability first. "When countries lose global leadership in a generation of wireless, jobs are shed, and technology innovation gets exported overseas,” Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, said in a study quoted by CNET.
President Trump’s team has even contemplated trying to develop a nationalized 5G network, for national security purposes. “[T]he stated motivation was clear: The US was in danger of falling behind China’s supposed lead in technological innovation and falling prey to its cyberwar capabilities,” as the American Enterprise Institute’s Bret Swanson put it in a critique of the idea.
If Chinese officials expect to win the 5G race — or beat American innovators in any other field — they may be inclined to acquiesce to Trump’s demand for new rules about the theft of intellectual property.
“China is in a [strong] position today because they've stolen technology,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. “Because of all that stolen technology, here's a new reality: Now they're innovating. Protecting [intellectual property] is going to be in China's best interest for their innovators and their economy.”
In the meantime, the U.S. government has a fraught relationship with American tech companies. Google decided last week to scrap a Pentagon contract for developing artificial intelligence technology, due to opposition from the Silicon Valley giant’s employees.
Thousands of Google employees signed a petition calling for a "a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology," according to the New York Times, while others threatened to resign in protest.
“The Americans have run the tech world for decades. Microsoft, Google, Apple, blah, blah, blah — we’re used to them winning. No, no, no,” Johnson said during a dinner party Wednesday, in a discussion that was recorded and then published by Buzzfeed. “The Chinese are about to win.”
China’s technological advances are a point of concern as well as frustration in American circles, where China’s rapid development as the product of “stolen technology” and unfair trade practices. If U.S. policymakers haven’t conceded defeat on the topic, however, Johnson’s comments nonetheless suggest that a key American ally sees the U.S. as a losing bet in at least one area.
“They’ve got 5G,” Johnson said of China. “They’ve found out a way. Everybody’s going to be getting stuff on their gizmos through the Chinese system and not the American system. So, watch out for that one.”
5G is a reference to the next generation of high-speed Internet connectivity, which would offer economic and national security benefits to the country that acquires the capability first. "When countries lose global leadership in a generation of wireless, jobs are shed, and technology innovation gets exported overseas,” Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics, said in a study quoted by CNET.
President Trump’s team has even contemplated trying to develop a nationalized 5G network, for national security purposes. “[T]he stated motivation was clear: The US was in danger of falling behind China’s supposed lead in technological innovation and falling prey to its cyberwar capabilities,” as the American Enterprise Institute’s Bret Swanson put it in a critique of the idea.
If Chinese officials expect to win the 5G race — or beat American innovators in any other field — they may be inclined to acquiesce to Trump’s demand for new rules about the theft of intellectual property.
“China is in a [strong] position today because they've stolen technology,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. “Because of all that stolen technology, here's a new reality: Now they're innovating. Protecting [intellectual property] is going to be in China's best interest for their innovators and their economy.”
In the meantime, the U.S. government has a fraught relationship with American tech companies. Google decided last week to scrap a Pentagon contract for developing artificial intelligence technology, due to opposition from the Silicon Valley giant’s employees.
Thousands of Google employees signed a petition calling for a "a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology," according to the New York Times, while others threatened to resign in protest.
Comments