Opinion | In trade and tech, the US can do better than throwing a tantrum over losing to an upstart China

Accusations of China cheating while overlooking its massive investments in innovation only makes the US look like a bullying, hectoring superpower nation behaving with ill grace at the slightest whiff of competition

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Published: 1:00am, 17 Jun 2019Updated: 6:41am, 17 Jun 2019

At the 2018 US Open women’s singles final, America’s Serena Williams threw a tantrum while under intense pressure from a hitherto unknown player, Naomi Osaka of Japan. After being warned for a code violation, Williams angrily accused the chair umpire of being “a thief” and “a cheat”, smashed her racket on the court, and protested that the game was “unfair”. She eventually lost the match to Osaka, but more devastating than losing the title, her appalling behaviour tarnished the sport’s image and her own reputation, and disappointed many fans, including me.

Just as disturbing were the boos from the crowd during the trophy ceremony, and the US Tennis Association statement congratulating Williams for her “class and sportsmanship”, despite the obvious fact that there was precious little of either on display.

How could a young player from a country that has never produced a singles Grand Slam champion beat the mighty Serena, who has won 23 Grand Slams and dominated women’s tennis for nearly two decades? It seemed to Williams there was no way she could have lost to an obscure upstart except for the umpire’s bias.

In the stand-off over trade and technology between the United States and China, Washington’s attitude and actions in many ways mirror Williams’. How is it possible for a poor country such as China to outcompete the mighty America in trade, stacking up US$323 billion in annual trade surplus against it? How could a long-time tech laggard, a despicable copycat, nurture any significant technological companies, not to mention a 5G leader in Huawei? To American hawks, the answer is obvious: China cheats. China competes unfairly. China steals US technologies.

To be sure, the US has legitimate concerns and well-justified complaints against China. China should have implemented more structural reforms, reduced the pervasive role of the state in the economy, liberalised its industries and markets, more robustly protected intellectual property rights, and levelled the playing field for foreign investors. Instead, China squandered the opportunity to reform its markets, leading to its inevitable confrontation with the US.

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