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Opinion
Why the US is painting China as the big bad tech villain
- Washington’s accusations are clearly driven more by its fear of the US losing its tech hegemony than by China overtaking it
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Zhou Xiaoming is a senior fellow at the Centre for China and Globalisation in Beijing and a former deputy representative of China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva.
In a story that took place in the Jin dynasty (266-420), an old woman was robbed. A young man came to her rescue and chased down the robber, who turned around and accused him of being the thief instead. It was late and dark and the old woman could only look from one to the other, confused. Washington, these days, appears to be acting just like the thief, trying to turn things upside down by pointing a finger at others.
For a start, Washington accuses China of seeking world domination. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, in response to an interview question, that “I think that what it [China] seeks is to be the dominant power in the world militarily, economically, diplomatically.”
Washington also accuses China of trying to dominate the global hi-tech and critical mineral sectors, casting it as an aggressive predator prepared to capitalise on its technological edge to exploit other countries. Last year, Nasa chief Bill Nelson said of China’s moon programme that “it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory’”.
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