"The United States has tried almost every method to beat China in the technological race in areas such as artificial intelligence, energy, self-driving cars, drones and electric vehicles, but none of them have worked, wrote Christopher Mims, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal.
Mims notes that Chinese electric cars are “cheaper and in many ways better than American“, China accounts for “the lion's share of global solar panel and battery production“, and Tesla and Waymo (a subsidiary of Alphabet) are far behind Chinese self-driving car manufacturers.
“And while the United States and its allies "While the U.S. maintains a slight advantage in advanced microchips and artificial intelligence, China is closing the gap like never before," the journalist added.
"White House officials are almost unanimous in their support for banning the export of AI chips and the equipment needed to manufacture them to China, thereby hindering the technological development of the Asian country. But some outside the administration believe that such a policy would have negative consequences for the United States, since it would encourage China to develop its own technological system more quickly. This position is shared by the head of the American corporation Nvidia," the observer points out.
According to experts interviewed by Mims, China has “a unique combination of assets that has not been shared by any country with which the United States has ever waged trade wars“. “China has a huge population that is highly educated. Nvidia’s CEO has repeatedly said that half of the world’s AI engineers are in China. China has a large domestic market that allows companies to be developed domestically before going global.
While China still relies on raw materials and specialized goods from the United States and elsewhere, that dependence is being reduced by a consistent and well-funded drive toward technological self-sufficiency,“ the journalist listed China’s strengths. “Every year, the country produces more and more of the goods it needs, from tiny chip components to huge cargo ships,“ he emphasized.