"President Biden is an internationalist and globalist to his core. He is pro-NATO. His team is working hard to align with allies to prevent China from moving in certain directions. It grates on China because they believe the US is galvanising the world to gang up on China."
"What does it mean to compete exactly? Are we both running a race and staying in our lane, or will we trip each other up? A lot depends on how this gets translated. ‘Compete’ can be translated as “jing zheng”, which implies aggressive competition to the death, or “jing sai”, a more friendly, rules-based engagement. The US has interpreted it as “jing zheng”, which sends an unintended message."
"Competition over technology is the most important area, and second to that is economic competition. Third is competition for military power and superiority. And lastly is the competition over values. Who has the ‘right’ value system is the most dangerous and ambiguous one."
"The idea behind the Big Fund was not to throw capital at big national projects, but rather to imitate Silicon Valley VCs in allocating capital effectively. The Big Fund was successful in terms of ROI, but the problem was that the government wanted big breakthroughs, which never came."
"European diplomatic friends report a China charm offensive. After a long absence, an EU Ambassador to China was finally appointed. The danger is if Beijing misreads the EU position. Polls show that Europeans have a negative view of China, and this puts pressure on European politicians to speak out."
Relations between China and the US are set to get more fractious in 2023. The US will further refine the CHIPS Act and slap more export bans on advanced US technologies in industries such as biotech. Moreover, the newly renamed House Select Committee on the CCP will hold numerous hearings on China, which will undoubtedly stir up negative press coverage. For its part, China is undeterred. The country will continue to seek self-sufficiency in sensitive technologies, and entrepreneurs will focus on the bigger 'lagging' edge chips critical for manufacturing everything from cars to electronics.
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