A new turn in the US-China technology competition

The dynamics of technological supremacy are undergoing rapid change. For years, the Western world has been observing advances in software and semiconductor innovation, while China has emerged as a major player in advanced technology. Although experts generally believe that China lags slightly behind the United States in AI development, China has an ambitious vision to take global leadership in two key areas: AI and renewable energy. In the first half of 2024, China’s solar photovoltaic power generation capacity exceeded 670 GW, making it the world’s largest solar producer.

China’s determination to become a world leader in AI by 2030, with an industry valued at $150 billion, is truly inspiring. These advances not only make China a key player in the global tech space, but also have major implications for the US-China tech competition. Given China’s ambitions, the real question is where does China’s AI and clean energy industries stand? Currently, while China lags behind the United States in AI development, Open AI Introduction ChatGPT In October 2022, the Chinese were caught off guard. They did not expect Open AI In response, Chinese technology companies launched their own generative Chatbots The project will be launched in 2023 after obtaining government approval.

Despite being a new company, the Chinese company has strong financial backing. The company is valued at $1 billion and is positioning itself as an alternative to products such as Meta’s generative AI model. camelSimilarly, Ernie Bot (enhanced representation through knowledge integration) Chatbots Baidu’s service product based on the large language model ERNIE 4.0 will be released in 2023. China still faces challenges in the development of artificial intelligence. The US Open AI is ahead of China, and it is difficult for China to catch up. This has created a technological gap between Open AI and its Chinese counterparts. The biggest advantage ChatGPTAnd other open AI advantages of the United States over its Chinese competitors lie in “data”. This is one of the main constraints facing Chinese tech companies because of the lack of data availability. Most global websites are in English, and only about 1.5% of international websites are written in Chinese. Add in geopolitical tensions, and Chinese tech companies are in a tough spot. Chinese internet users typically generate content or interact through apps on their phones, such as WeChat or Weibo. This also creates additional barriers for these AI models to acquire data, which is a fundamental flaw.

Data is essential for training artificial intelligence, but not all countries are willing to hand over data to Chinese companies. A recent example is Tik TokIts parent company ByteDance has been accused of storing U.S. users The data is in China and accessible to Chinese authorities. Politics cannot be separated from data governance or data privacy. There is always a perception problem among Chinese companies that the data they collect will be used for purposes other than purely commercial, or may be used for inappropriate purposes. Neither the EU nor the US framework, even if it is not the case. In 2022, the US announced a ban on the sale of supercomputing chips and advanced chip manufacturing equipment to curb China’s technological progress. The Biden administration also restricted US investment in China, especially in areas where artificial intelligence can be applied for military purposes. The move highlights US concerns about China’s growing technological strength and its potential application in the field of national security. As long as the two powers continue to compete, this concern will continue to affect Sino-US technological competition.

China has surpassed the United States as the largest exporter of AI talent, with nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers coming from China. This is a significant increase from three years ago, when China produced about a third of the world’s top talent. The imbalance has been growing, with more Chinese researchers staying in China. The competition between China and the United States for dominance in AI has also led to a funding boom. It is unlikely that Sino-US relations will improve significantly in the next decade, which is why China is now focusing on self-reliance in advanced technologies.

In August 2022, the Biden administration banned the export of high-tech products to China, further intensifying the Sino-US trade war. The EU also plans to restrict Chinese solar panels, claiming that these solar panels are made with forced labor Solar PV products from Xinjiang. In response, Beijing decided to ban key solar technologies. China controls 75% of the solar module assembly manufacturing process and 85% of solar cell production. Such a ban could have a significant impact on the solar supply chain.

When it comes to the competition between China and the United States, technological decoupling in the high-tech sector is natural. The real competition is about who will lead the future technological transformation. Now, China has the potential to lead this transformation, a prospect that highlights not only the seriousness of the Sino-US technological competition, but also China’s potential to shape the future of technology. However, if China wants to become a global leader in 2030, it must convince the world of the viability of its high-tech.