OPINION / EDITORIAL
US cuts China’s skin, and its own nerves: Global Times editorial
Published: Nov 25, 2021 09:06 PM
China US Photo: GT

Photo: GT

The US Department of Commerce on Wednesday blacklisted 27 entities from countries including China and Pakistan, citing national security and diplomatic concerns. Some of the entities were accused of assisting the Chinese military's quantum computing efforts and acquiring or attempting "to acquire US-origin items in support of military applications." Twelve of the 27 entities are based in China, including Hangzhou Zhongke Microelectronics, Hunan Goke Microelectronics, and Xi'an Aerospace Huaxun Technology.

This was the second time that the Biden administration took action against Chinese companies. In June, Biden signed an order banning US investment in 59 Chinese companies. Although the Biden administration has embraced detente with China, the technological "decoupling" started in the Trump era has been even further emphasized under Biden. 

The allegation that those Chinese companies assist the Chinese military's quantum computing was fabricated by Washington, whose real intent is to strike a blow to China's technological progress and slow China's pace in this sphere. They think cutting off the supply of chips and equipment to Chinese high-tech companies would work.

When supply chains are cut off, any company would encounter some difficulties. But all Chinese companies are backed by an industrial system of China that is much more sophisticated than the US'. The US brutally treating Chinese entities will stimulate this system of China to adjust and accelerate breaking through the stranglehold. Consequently, China will make even more technological progress, while US companies will gradually lose more markets. 

The areas in which the US leads are shrinking. This is because technological and economic factors are moving around the world. Meanwhile, the US' manufacturing industry has become much smaller compared with China. Thus, it is impossible for the US to maintain its systemic advantages. As the basic conditions that support innovation in China become more systematic and our ability to achieve key breakthroughs become stronger, it is an irreversible trend that the US will spur progress in China in the fields it attempts to choke China.

China's need has greatly boosted the market return on US high-tech research and development (R&D), while strengthening the business approach to those R&Ds. It is a mutually beneficial relationship between China and the US. Washington is destroying such relations by expanding the number of high-tech companies as its targets. The Biden administration has pushed large federal spending programs, including the infusion of taxpayers' money into cutting-edge technologies, which is strategically aligned with their "decoupling" with China. The US is moving toward a "planned economy" in which much of market-driven R&D will be driven by the government in the future.

It will eventually be seen that a technological "decoupling" between China and the US will shake and affect the US more than China. China is good at solving problems. Now it has a new problem to deal with, but it is generally familiar with what it needs to do. However, the US used to be the leader in technological innovation, but has decayed into a conservative guard of past achievements. It created opportunities in accordance with market rules, but has become dependent on state-backed investment and subsidies for international competition. The US has been pushing itself away from the country's "founding doctrine."

China has no worries strategically. The US has hurt its own nerves by cutting the skin of China. Big countries like China and the US can strive to achieve any goal, but what is hard is to ensure their path and remain synergistic with the development of their society while releasing endogenous power. As the US tries to decouple from China, nothing has changed with China but just some new urgent tasks. But the US has lost itself in anxiety. What happened this year has shown that the US supply chain mess is much worse than China's, and the longer it takes, the more it will prove who has lost more.