Daily Times

Fourth industrial revolution is knocking on the door. It is bringing new opportunities but also triggering the change in rules of game. The guardians of existing system are the front runners to twist the rules in their favor. Howbeit, the advancement and technological development by other countries are not allowing them to play their games. The situation is compelling the champions of open competition to retreat and look for protectionist tactics. In recent ties protectionism has become talk of the town. Once champion of globalization and free market is leading protectionism with the slogan of America First.

President Trump is tirelessly working to dismantle any organization which is not serving the interests of USA. He is throwing his allies in disarray by withdrawing US support. NATO, which was built to protect the liberal order is losing attraction for USA. President Trump is asking for do more from members to sustain the organization. The mantra of do more is applied on everyone, irrespective of their affiliation with USA. Trade war has been intensified. USA and Western countries, self-assumed protectors of global order and open markets are putting all types of barriers to check the progress of China. USA is pushing allies to introduce rules, which will make impossible for Chinese firms to do business. They are not even to violate the international business laws to contain Chinese firms.

Although, the war has been launched on every company of China but the center of gravity of new war is technology. The technology war is getting fierce with every passing moment. Few months back President Trump categorically explained that USA will not allow any country to surpass USA in technology. He indicated his administration will do everything to counter any country on technology front. The sentence helps to understand the current malicious campaign of USA against China. Mr. Pompeo assumed the charge of chief campaign and running around the world to achieve the objectives.

Huawei and ZTE including other companies are facing opposition for a long time. USA cannot compete Huawei in 5-G or other latest technical infrastructure. Hence, it resorted to policy of discrediting company and asking countries to not join it.USA is also not allowing Chinese company to venture in local high-tech market. The researchers and students are also under surveillance. The latest victim USA smear campaign is TikTok. President Trump has threatened to ban and expel the TikTok. Now he has signed executive orders and is asking the company to sell its operation in America to American company.He is also asking to pay certain amount to USA government. It is day light robbery and violation of international trade and economic laws.

USA is justifying all tactics and malicious actions at the name of free and rule-based world. They are portraying high tech companies of China as source of espionage, spying and data collectors. It is baseless allegation but interesting at the same moment. USA itself applied all tools to spy and collect data even of the closet friends. It happened during the administration the of so called enlightened and righteous president Obama. He launched a program to spy on wider scale even the head of states and governments of friendly countries. Snowden leaks presented the ugly side of tech supremacy of USA.

USA and allies somehow depend on China for the cutting-edge technologies like 5-G. China is investing heavily to give impetus to local market to venture in modern technologies and take a lead in innovation

Instead of correcting the course of actions, USA started to chase Snowden. UK newspaper were pressurized by UK to stop publishing the leaked documents. The freedom of expression was squeezed to get the desired result. Although, USA and UK always talk about the freedom of expression but in the case of Snowden leaks it acted in opposite direction. They themselves applied technology to collect data and manipulationof data. They also used it to run their public diplomacy. So, they believe technology can only be used to spy or collect data, not to facilitate the business or social needs. So, it can be concluded that the practices of USA are dictating their actions against China.

Private companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon are also contributing in collecting data for private use or to sell in market. Facebook admitted that it was giving access to Amazon and Yahoo to private data of members. However, the data scandal associated with Cambridge Analytica is biggest breach of confidence of users and data privacy. USA government itself admitted that it was used for election interference. It also has impacted the Brexit campaign. It is not only one company, Google also played a role and was criticized by different governments.

On contrary there is no such evidence available against Huawei or TikTok or any other Chinese company. The campaign is being built on the basis of assumptions, which have no rational at this point of time. The question is, will USA and allies succeed to contain the Chinese companies or technological development of China.The analysis shows that they will not be successful. It is not wishful analysis; it is based on the hard facts and figure.

First of all, China has forged diverse partnerships with multiple countries and establish good number of forums to counter the USA and its allies. The most prominent engagements on this front are China-Arab Cooperation Forum, China-Central and Eastern European Countries, China-Latin America and Caribbean Countries, China-Africa Forum etc.China is closely working with partner organizations and countries to counter the smear campaign by USA and its allies.

Second, technological dependence of China on USA or allies is negligible or non-existent. Rather, now USA and allies somehow depend on China for the cutting-edge technologies like 5-G. China is investing heavily to give impetus to local market to venture in modern technologies and take a lead in innovation. The achievements of China on artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing front are marvelous and it is leading in many ways.

Third, China has opened its doors for economic and technological cooperation under the BRI. It has created win-win cooperation under the umbrella of BRI. BRI is helping members countries and China to expand investment and attract best minds for technological development.

Lastly, China is offering open access to infrastructure, which its companies are installing in different. The step has been taken to eliminate the suspicions of spying or backdoors. China is open and wants to be accountable if anything happens against the international laws of business and economy. However, China is not ready to be bullied by anyone.

The writer is Director, Asia Study Center SDPI