U.S. Complains of Current Account Deficit and China Appetite for Western Technologies – A Self Inflicted Wound?

The current world order is grossly unfair … historians of an enlightened future may come back to view our times as the dark ages … when humans remain bonded to and oppressed by the  hegemony and ideology “markets,” “rule of law,” “freedom” and “democracy”.

The pure hypocrisy of the world is never ending.  And here is just one other small case study…

China is often accused by U.S. and Europe and Japan of over-protecting its economy from foreigners.  The foreigners want more access but Chinese are greedy; they disregard any concerns of China of over dependence on foreign nations for critical sectors of technology.But if the West is right, what should China make of Japan’s fear-mongering over Foxconn’s offer to buy Toshiba’s chip subsidiary or Trump’s direct executive order to block a Chinese firm’s offer to buy  Lattice Semiconductor?

In both cases, concerns are being raised about Chinese firms getting access to technology or the assets enriching Chinese know-how.  But if they are concerned about Chinese access to technology on national security grounds, why should they not accept Chinese concerns about ceding its markets to dominance by foreign tech companies?

Russia has recently announced that Russian companies should move away U.S. software over fears of national security.  China for years has known that U.S. consulting companies often conducts espionage against China.

We known IBM, Google, Apple, Cisco … all have cozy relations with the U.S. government.  Wikileak’s Vault 7 shows just reveals some of the ways how U.S. espionage and cyber warfare conducted through them might look like…

But we don’t need leaked document to see why relying on U.S., Western and Japanese companies is dangerous.  Just look at how West uses overt sanctions to achieve political goals.

Even right now, when China is supposedly at peace with everyone, U.S. and Europe are still enacting technological embargo against China.  U.S. has all sort of export controls directed at China, and all sorts of investment control against Chinese investing in U.S.

China is prohibited from working on the International Space Station, of which even Russia is a part.  U.S. still actively prohibits NASA from working with China on any projects.

So if the U.S. and Japan are worried about a Chinese firm or a Taiwanese firm having extensive relations with Mainland China from buying a semiconductor operation, what kind of concerns must China have of the U.S. investing in China and cornering all sorts of technologies and markets?

Trump wanted to Make America Great Again.  He understands he would need foreign companies to come invest in U.S. – to revitalize U.S. industries and invest in U.S. workers.  But his short-sighted and misguided categorical fears of Chinese companies are hampering him.

When China allows all sorts of U.S. companies to invest in China but U.S. fearing all sorts of Chinese companies looking to invest in U.S., is it really that surprising that the U.S. has a current account and trade deficit against China?

Strategically, xenophobic tendencies on the part of the West will only push China to innovate more independently.  This seems to be counter to what the West aims to do by cutting China off from access to high tech.  In the end, one must ask, why force this route on China when China can be easily co-opted – through economic and technological integration – to co-invent with the West for their mutual good?