Experts urge US to adopt strategic approach to Chinese technology

However, merely shutting out Chinese technology from the US without a clear strategy to boost domestic competitiveness would not guarantee that the US catches up in areas where China now has a clear lead, the experts said at an online panel organised by the Quincy Institute, a Washington think tank that advocates for a less militarised American foreign policy.

Instead, Washington should target areas in which cutting-edge Chinese technological know-how could be welcomed, then applied to help the US catch up, possibly through joint ventures and technology licences.

“China is overly paranoid about the US, and I think the US is overly paranoid about China,” said Jake Werner, director of the East Asia programme at the Quincy Institute. “But China has figured out a way to incorporate American business and technology in its advanced sectors … What is stopping us from doing basically the same thing is my rhetorical question.”

The question of how the US should treat Chinese technology has been the subject of heated debate in Washington in recent years as China has come to dominate cutting-edge areas such as electric vehicles and batteries.