The West's Technological Edge in Geopolitical Competition

[RiazHaq]

The West's Technological Edge in Geopolitical Competition

The US and its allies enjoy a significant technological advantage over China and Russia. The Chinese are working hard to catch up but the W...

www.southasiainvestor.com

The US and its allies enjoy a significant technological advantage over China and Russia. The Chinese are working hard to catch up but the West is not standing still. It is making huge investments in research and development to maintain this edge as it becomes increasingly clear that the outcome of the ongoing international geopolitical competition will largely be determined by technology.

East-West Comparison of GDP, R&D. Source: IMF (GDP), OECD (R&D) via WSJ

In 2019, the United States and its allies invested $1.5 trillion in research and development, far outpacing the combined Chinese and Russian R&D investment of half a trillion USD. This gap will likely narrow if the East's GDP continues to grow faster than the West's, allowing for higher investment in technology.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US, EU, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have made it clear that the Western allies can and will use technology sanctions to control the behavior of China and Russia.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will no longer fabricate computer chips for Russia, according to media reports. The ban will particularly affect Russia's Elbrus and Baikal processors, unless China agrees to step in to manufacture these chips, and risk additional US sanctions itself. Both Russian processors use mature 28 nm technology. The world's most advanced TSMC fabrication technology today is 5 nanometers. The best US-based Intel can do today is 7nm technology. China's SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) has the capability to produce chips using 14 nm technology. Semiconductor chips form the core of all modern systems from automobiles to airplanes to smartphones, computers, home appliances, toys, telecommunications and advanced weapons systems.

While China is the biggest volume producer of semiconductor components in the world, the Chinese design centers and fabs rely on tools and equipment supplied by the West to deliver products. Western companies dominate all the key steps in this critical and highly complex industry, from chip design (led by U.S.-based Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm and AMD and Britain’s ARM) to the fabrication of advanced chips (led by Intel, Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung ) and the sophisticated machines that etch chip designs onto wafers (produced by Applied Materials and Lam Research in the U.S., the Netherlands’ ASML Holding and Japan’s Tokyo Electron ), according to the Wall Street Journal.
There is no question that the current western technology sanctions can seriously squeeze Russia. However, overusing such sanctions could backfire in the long run if the US rivals, particularly China and Russia, decide to invest billions of dollars to build their own capacity. This would seriously erode western technology domination and result in major market share losses for the US tech companies, particularly those in Silicon Valley.
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The West's Technological Edge in Geopolitical Competition

The US and its allies enjoy a significant technological advantage over China and Russia. The Chinese are working hard to catch up but the W...

www.southasiainvestor.com

 

[nang2]

It has rampant movement in political correctness that keeps on sabotaging its freedom. Less freedom, less innovation.

 

[RiazHaq]

Renewed Great Power Competition:
Implications for Defense—Issues for
Congress
Updated March 10, 2022

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/R43838.pdf

National Defense Strategy (NDS),
5 which formally reoriented U.S. national security strategy and
U.S. defense strategy toward an explicit primary focus on great power competition with China
and Russia.
The Biden Administration’s March 2021 Interim National Security Strategy Guidance states that
“we face a world of rising nationalism, receding democracy, growing rivalry with China, Russia,
and other authoritarian states, and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of our
lives,” and that protecting the security of the American people “requires us to meet challenges not
only from great powers and regional adversaries, but also from violent and criminal non-state
actors and extremists, and from threats like climate change, infectious disease, cyberattacks, and
disinformation that respect no national borders.”
6 The document further states (emphasis as in
original)
We must also contend with the reality that the distribution of power across the world is
changing, creating new threats. China, in particular, has rapidly become more assertive.
It is the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic,
military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open
international system. Russia remains determined to enhance its global influence and play a
disruptive role on the world stage. Both Beijing and Moscow have invested heavily in
efforts meant to check U.S. strengths and prevent us from defending our interests and allies
around the world. Regional actors like Iran and North Korea continue to pursue gamechanging capabilities and technologies, while threatening U.S. allies and partners and
challenging regional stability. We also face challenges within countries whose governance
is fragile, and from influential non-state actors that have the ability to disrupt American
interests. Terrorism and violent extremism, both domestic and international, remain
significant threats. But, despite these steep challenges, the United States’ enduring
advantages—across all forms and dimensions of our power—enable us to shape the future
of international politics to advance our interests and values, and create a freer, safer, and
more prosperous world….
Defending America also means setting clear priorities within our defense budget. First and
foremost, we will continue to invest in the people who serve in our all-volunteer force and
their families. We will sustain readiness and ensure that the U.S. Armed Forces remain the
best trained and equipped force in the world. In the face of strategic challenges from an
increasingly assertive China and destabilizing Russia, we will assess the appropriate
structure, capabilities, and sizing of the force, and, working with the Congress, shift our
emphasis from unneeded legacy platforms and weapons systems to free up resources for
investments in the cutting-edge technologies and capabilities that will determine our
military and national security advantage in the future. We will streamline the processes for
developing, testing, acquiring, deploying, and securing these technologies. We will ensure
that we have the skilled workforce to acquire, integrate, and operate them. And we will
shape ethical and normative frameworks to ensure these technologies are used responsibly.
We will maintain the proficiency of special operations forces to focus on crisis response
and priority counterterrorism and unconventional warfare missions. And we will develop
capabilities to better compete and deter gray zone actions. We will prioritize defense
investments in climate resiliency and clean energy. And we will work to ensure that the
Department of Defense is a place of truly equal opportunity where our service members do
not face discrimination or the scourge of sexual harassment and assault….

 

[tower9]

Chinas great disadvantage is that the US already has all the rich and advanced nations on its side while China is all alone in that front. Russia has some tech and industry but it’s not significant in most industries.

 

[UKBengali]

Chinas great disadvantage is that the US already has all the rich and advanced nations on its side while China is all alone in that front. Russia has some tech and industry but it’s not significant in most industries.

Yes but China can get all the resources it needs from Russia and Kazakhstan.

Europe and Japan have no such luxury anymore.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

The West's Technological Edge in Geopolitical Competition

The US and its allies enjoy a significant technological advantage over China and Russia. The Chinese are working hard to catch up but the W...

www.southasiainvestor.com

The US and its allies enjoy a significant technological advantage over China and Russia. The Chinese are working hard to catch up but the West is not standing still. It is making huge investments in research and development to maintain this edge as it becomes increasingly clear that the outcome of the ongoing international geopolitical competition will largely be determined by technology.

Isn't this Russia/China thing more of a philosophical issue.

It's like saying the US is catching up on technology to make a chopstick better..instead of spending money on making a replacement for the chopstick.

Why any effort at all to match the West in what is already done?

Why build a Navy with aircraft carriers, subs, cruisers, and destroyers...just because the West has them. Maybe instead you should be building the new X, Y, and Z type ships instead to show how the aircraft carrier, subs, and cruisers are actually outdated.

It's like all the effort to break Intel and AMD's monopoly on CPUs.

Look at Apple...they went from RISC, to Intel, and then to ARM...without much fuss. Are they banging their heads on the x86 wall...nope.

 

[RiazHaq]

Isn't this Russia/China thing more of a philosophical issue.

It's like saying the US is catching up on technology to make a chopstick better..instead of spending money on making a replacement for the chopstick.

Why any effort at all to match the West in what is already done?

Why build a Navy with aircraft carriers, subs, cruisers, and destroyers...just because the West has them. Maybe instead you should be building the new X, Y, and Z type ships instead to show how the aircraft carrier, subs, and cruisers are actually outdated.

It's like all the effort to break Intel and AMD's monopoly on CPUs.

Look at Apple...they went from RISC, to Intel, and then to ARM...without much fuss. Are they banging their heads on the x86 wall...nope.

Americans and their allies are investing in much more fundamental science and technology research than the Chinese and the Russians....like Chip technology that is at the heart of everything from computers, communications, AI, aerospace and modern weapon systems.

Example: Russia relies on US-ally Taiwan's TSMC to build its advanced chips that go into its most modern weapon systems.

Russia Sanctions: Taiwan's TSMC Joins Western Ban on Technology For Moscow

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

Yes but China can get all the resources it needs from Russia and Kazakhstan.

Europe and Japan have no such luxury anymore.

US immigration policies attract the best and the brightest from around the world.

Minorities Are Majority in America's Silicon Valley

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

 

[UKBengali]

Americans and their allies are investing in much more fundamental science and technology research than the Chinese and the Russians....like Chip technology that is at the heart of everything from computers, communications, AI, aerospace and modern weapon systems.

Example: Russia relies on US-ally Taiwan's TSMC to build its advanced chips that go into its most modern weapon systems.

Russia Sanctions: Taiwan's TSMC Joins Western Ban on Technology For Moscow

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

US immigration policies attract the best and the brightest from around the world.

Minorities Are Majority in America's Silicon Valley

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

Where did you think that China is not also investing in it's chip technology?

China's SMIC can already produce 14 nm chips without any foreign technology.

In fact China is probably ahead of the US in quantum computing.

Expect China and the US to be broadly comparable as the two leading tech powers in the 2030s - with China leading in some areas and US in others.

 

[tower9]

Where did you think that China is not also investing in it's chip technology?

China's SMIC can already produce 14 nm chips without any foreign technology.

In fact China is probably ahead of the US in quantum computing.

Expect China and the US to be broadly comparable as the two leading tech powers in the 2030s - with China leading in some areas and US in others.

China has largely been playing catch up in the last 40 years. But as of maybe 5-10 years ago, it started to also become leaders in cutting edge technologies and fundamental research in certain fields. Of course, I think the West as a whole is still in a far more advantaged position than China is, particularly because China is really without rich and advanced allies aside from Russia, who control some core technologies, but China has made a tremendous amount of progress in the past few decades.

 

[RiazHaq]

Where did you think that China is not also investing in it's chip technology?

China's SMIC can already produce 14 nm chips without any foreign technology.

In fact China is probably ahead of the US in quantum computing.

Expect China and the US to be broadly comparable as the two leading tech powers in the 2030s - with China leading in some areas and US in others.

China is definitely investing in chip technology. ...it's already down to 14nm.

Where China lacks is in tools and equipment to produce advanced chips.

Western companies dominate all the key steps in this critical and highly complex industry, from chip design (led by U.S.-based Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm and AMD and Britain’s ARM) to the fabrication of advanced chips (led by Intel, Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung ) and the sophisticated machines that etch chip designs onto wafers (produced by Applied Materials and Lam Research in the U.S., the Netherlands’ ASML Holding and Japan’s Tokyo Electron ), according to the Wall Street Journal.

Russia Sanctions: Taiwan's TSMC Joins Western Ban on Technology For Moscow

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

 

[UKBengali]

China is definitely investing in chip technology. ...it's already down to 14nm.

Where China lacks is in tools and equipment to produce advanced chips.

Western companies dominate all the key steps in this critical and highly complex industry, from chip design (led by U.S.-based Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm and AMD and Britain’s ARM) to the fabrication of advanced chips (led by Intel, Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung ) and the sophisticated machines that etch chip designs onto wafers (produced by Applied Materials and Lam Research in the U.S., the Netherlands’ ASML Holding and Japan’s Tokyo Electron ), according to the Wall Street Journal.

Russia Sanctions: Taiwan's TSMC Joins Western Ban on Technology For Moscow

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

Yes, that is why China is developing it's own tooling and software to etch transistors onto wafers.

It can get by with it's current fab process till it can independently go down to sub-10nm processes.

By 2030 it should have caught up with the Western companies, Korea and Japan in this field. It just needs a lot of money and brainpower which China has in abundance.

 

[Leishangthem]

China has largely been playing catch up in the last 40 years. But as of maybe 5-10 years ago, it started to also become leaders in cutting edge technologies and fundamental research in certain fields. Of course, I think the West as a whole is still in a far more advantaged position than China is, particularly because China is really without rich and advanced allies aside from Russia, who control some core technologies, but China has made a tremendous amount of progress in the past few decades.

CN can solve all that,IT just needs to reach an agreement with Japan regarding senkaku and then play as the guarantor of security between NK & SK,China will back any side that gets unilaterally invaded while China will support unification based on mutual discussion without resorting to force.This would leave no reason for US soldiers to have foot in east asia.

I don't think the old men at the helm wanna back down before anything Japanese after radicalizing the whole generations against anything japan.
The party's fossils seeks to use Japan as last resort fodder for nationalism. China only needs Japan & SK the wyte fcks are useless.