The United States led the world in technology since the early days of the Cold War, and over the so-called American century, it occupied space, led the Internet revolution, and introduced the world's most prominent innovations.
In recent years, China has made impressive efforts to ascend the throne of global technology leadership, and has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in developing robots, artificial intelligence technologies, microelectronics, green energy and others.
In a report published in the American magazine Foreign Affairs, writers Christopher Darby and Sarah Sewal say that Washington's concerns about Chinese technological progress are mainly focused on the military side, while defense capabilities are only one side of the technological leadership struggle between the great powers.
According to the authors, Beijing is playing a very smart game, as it uses technological innovation as a soft way to achieve its goals without the need to resort to war.
Chinese companies are now selling wireless infrastructure for 5G networks around the world, harnessing synthetic biology to boost their food production, and racing against time to make smaller, faster chips.
In the face of Chinese ambitions, lawmakers in the United States called for stronger government measures to protect US leadership, including increasing spending on research and development, easing visa restrictions, supporting innovators, and building new partnerships at home and abroad.
But the real problem for the United States is much deeper, the authors see, as it has a misunderstanding of the most important technologies and how to enhance its capabilities.
Although national security takes new dimensions, and competition between great powers is shifting to different areas, the government has not yet been able to keep pace with developments.
In such an environment, Washington needs to expand its horizons and support a wider range of technologies. This is not only about supporting technologies with military applications, but also developing technologies with civilian uses such as microchips and biotechnology.
Washington also needs help with non-military biotechnologies to achieve commercial success, and to finance tech sectors that the private sector refuses to finance.
Beijing is using technological innovation as a soft means to achieve its goals without resorting to (European) war.
Ups and downs
In the early decades of the Cold War, the United States spent billions of dollars expanding its scientific infrastructure.
The Atomic Energy Commission, established in 1946, assumed responsibility for nuclear weapons laboratories and funded academic research centers.
The Ministry of Defense, established in 1947, was also given a massive research budget, as was the case for the National Science Foundation.
After the Soviets launched the "Sputnik" satellite in 1957, Washington established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, known as "NASA", to win the space race.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency was also established, which is mandated to prevent future technological surprises.
By 1964, research and development accounted for 17% of the total estimated federal spending budget.
But over time, the government lost its lead in technological innovation.
In 1964, the US government was spending 1.86% of its GDP on research and development, but by 1994 the figure had fallen to 0.83%.
During this period, the investment of American private companies in research and development doubled.
Most of the R&D and innovation processes were not taking place in the labs of large companies but in privately funded startups, where the venture capital investors were willing to take risks.
These venture capital companies first appeared in the 1970s, and some achieved remarkable successes, such as Apple and Microsoft, but this type of investment did not achieve widespread success until the 1990s with the advent of the Internet.
The rise of venture capital created a great deal of wealth, but it did not necessarily enhance the national security of the United States, as the pioneering companies took an interest in less expensive software and did not focus much on more sophisticated technologies such as the microelectronics sector.
Venture capital firms emerged in the 1970s, such as Apple and Microsoft (Getty Images).
Out of the equation
The authors note that government funding for technological research in the public and private sectors has continued to decline over the years, and the Ministry of Defense has retained the largest proportion of the funding, but these efforts have become dispersed across various agencies and departments, each of which seeks to achieve its own priorities in the absence of a national strategy.
As the best researchers flee into the private sector, the scientific expertise and competencies of government agencies diminish.
The relationship between the government and private companies has also deteriorated, as the government sector is no longer a major customer for many leading companies.
In addition, globalization has led to a decline in US technological dominance at the global level, with China's strong rise in consumer technology.
To complicate matters further, innovation itself has overturned the traditional concept of technology in the field of national security.
The technology is becoming more dual-use than ever before, with the same technologies being used in the civilian and military sectors.
This has created new vulnerabilities and raised concerns about the security of supply chains for microelectronics and communication networks.
Although civilian technologies have become a major challenge to national security, the US government remains outside the equation, with the private sector overseeing the entire industry.
The story of the Chinese rise
These shifts in technological innovation would have seemed less important if the world remained unipolar, but they are extremely important today in light of the rise of China as a geopolitical competitor to the United States for leadership of the international system.
Over the past two decades, China has transformed from a country that “steals” and imitates technology, to one that improves existing technologies and innovates more.
China has invested heavily in technology research and development, increasing its share of global technology spending from less than 5% in 2000 to more than 23% in 2020. If the current trend continues, China is expected to outpace the United States in technology spending. By 2025.
The Chinese strategy is based on the "integration between the military and the civilian", under full coordination and cooperation between the private sector and the Ministry of Defense.
The state supports the efforts of military agencies, state-owned enterprises, private companies and businessmen to develop technological technologies for various uses.
Support may come in the form of research grants, loans, training programs, or providing land and office space, as the Chinese government creates entirely new cities solely for technology innovation companies.
The Chinese company "Huawei" has emerged as a global leader in the field of fifth generation networks (Reuters)
China's investment in 5G technology shows how the Chinese plans are feasible.
In fact, 5G network equipment forms the basis of new cellular network infrastructure around the world, and the Chinese company "Huawei" (Huawei) has emerged as a global leader in this field, offering high-quality products at a lower price than its Finnish and South Korean competitors.
The company has benefited from massive government support, totaling $ 75 billion, in the form of tax holidays, grants, loans and discounts on land ownership.
Huawei has also benefited from the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which provides generous loans to Chinese countries and companies to finance basic infrastructure projects in many countries.
The two authors add that the huge Chinese investments in artificial intelligence have clearly begun to bear fruit, as Chinese researchers publish more scientific research in this field than their American counterparts.
Besides generous funding, a large part of China's AI success is due to companies and developers having access to vast amounts of data.
Among these companies are e-commerce giant Alibaba, Tencent, which developed WeChat, and Baidu, which started as a search engine but now offers a large selection. From online products, DJK, which dominates the drone market, and SenseTime, which provides facial recognition systems for the government's surveillance network, is said to be the world's most valuable artificial intelligence company. Currently.
Legally, these companies are required to cooperate with the state for intelligence purposes, which is a broad mandate for the government that forces companies to share data for various reasons.
This information mainly includes users outside of China.
The authors argue that Chinese companies have built a global network of data-gathering applications that collect private data for users, and China's thirst for personal data extends even to knowledge of DNA.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, GBI - the largest gene sequencing provider in China - has set up about 50 new laboratories abroad designed to help governments with tests to detect the Corona virus.
China has shown great interest in biotechnology, although it has not caught up with the United States in this area.
As computing and artificial intelligence evolve, innovations in biotechnology can help solve some of humanity's most confusing challenges, from disease and famine to energy production and the fight against climate change.
The McKinsey Global Institute for Research estimates the value of biotechnology applications over the next 10 to 20 years at as much as $ 4 trillion.
But this technology also has a dark side, as it is not unlikely that some actors are developing a biological weapon targeting specific ethnic groups.
China has shown great interest in biotechnology even though it has not caught up with the United States in this area (Getty Images)
In light of controversial ethical questions, such as the limits of manipulating the human genome, there are real concerns that China will dominate biotechnology globally and break all ethical controls and standards in this field.
In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui modified the DNA of twin babies, sparking an international uproar.
Beijing called him a "rogue" researcher and punished him.
However, the Chinese government's contempt for human rights and its pursuit of technological superiority indicate - according to the authors - that it may adopt a permissive approach towards such dangerous practices.
The future of confrontation
US President Joe Biden has pledged to restore the United States’s place in world leadership, and called for increased federal spending on research and development, including allocating about $ 300 billion to focus on advanced technologies to boost US competitiveness.
According to the authors, setting technological priorities from the top of the hierarchy of power will make future strategies more effective, and pave the way for bridging the gaps in the private sector investment between the various technological fields, and expanding government support for marketing operations.
The authors argue that if the United States chooses to focus on the same technologies, it will lose a lot in terms of its economy, security and the well-being of its citizens, and allow China to ascend the throne of global leadership without restrictions.