January 04, 2023
The Illusion of Controls
In October, the Biden administration announced a series of new, unilaterally imposed export controls designed to freeze China’s advanced chip production and supercomputing capabilities. The strengthened rules came less than a month after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced a major change in U.S. technology competition strategy. Previously, the United States sought to deny the export of chips or other technologies to China if such items were designed or likely to be used for military purposes, or if the transfer would impair the U.S. ability to maintain an advantage over competitors in cutting-edge commercial technologies that might also have military applications. Now, Sullivan said, “we must maintain as large of a lead as possible” in certain technology areas as a whole, for all intents and purposes erasing the line between civilian and military applications in the advanced chip production and supercomputing sectors.
The case of semiconductors illustrates how countries cannot easily weaponize interdependence, especially when it comes to supply chains.
A narrative quickly took hold that these export controls, and especially the “foreign direct product rule” provisions that allow the United States to apply its controls extraterritorially under certain circumstances—such as preventing companies outside the United States from selling semiconductors to China if they were produced using U.S. equipment—were a sign that the U.S. was “weaponizing” its influential position in the semiconductor supply chain. The United States, this argument went, enjoys market dominance in certain kinds of software and equipment used to design and manufacture semiconductors, as well as certain advanced chips critical for artificial intelligence, and it can use this privileged position to stymie China’s attempts to develop its own microelectronic and supercomputing capabilities. In a similar way, the United States has used the centrality of the U.S. dollar to freeze individuals and governments out of the global financial system.
Read the full article from Foreign Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
Reports
Technology & National Security
Quantum's Industrial MomentQuantum technologies are approaching a critical inflection point. Over the next three to five years, quantum sensors and computers that have long remained confined to laborato...
By Constanza M. Vidal Bustamante & Dr. John Burke
-
Podcast
Technology & National Security
Silicon Valley Goes to WarAs reports emerge of AI-powered weapons systems deployed in strikes on Iran, Dr. Sarah Shoker, Senior Research Scholar at UC Berkeley, and Paul Scharre, Executive Vice Preside...
By Paul Scharre
-
How the Pentagon Is Fumbling the Nuclear Energy Renaissance
Commentary
This article was originally published in The National Interest. In June 2024, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced it was stepping back into the nuclear reactor business ...
By Will Rogers
-
Podcast
Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Will Trump’s Shipping Insurance Plan Work?CNAS adjunct senior fellow Rachel Ziemba joined NPR's Planet Money to discuss the traffic jam of shipping vessels outside the Strait of Hormuz, political risk insurance, and m...
By Rachel Ziemba
