US-China Tech War: What Chinese Tech History Reveals About Future Tech Rivalry

US-China Tech War: What Chinese Tech History Reveals About Future Tech Rivalry by Nina Xiang reviews the history of China's technology development and attempts to understand how it could shape current and future tech rivalry between the United States and China.

The book focuses on the semiconductor industry, the epicenter of the current US-China tech rivalry. Despite decades of government-led effort to boost its chips industry, China has lagged far behind other countries and the country is extremely vulnerable to U.S. tech blockage.

Why did China fail to achieve its goals after repeated effort? What does tightening technology blockage by the U.S. mean to China's tech space? How deep will the rift between the two countries' tech ecosystem be?

The book dispels a number of myths about how China progressed technologically: the whole-nation model, forced technology transfer, and China's efforts to stimulate home-grown tech. With a deeper look, these hyped terms reveal a different side that would surprise readers.

In addition, China's tech tradition and tech DNA have an important influence on China's technology development. The country's strength in tech applications has deep roots. This will also determine how U.S.-China tech rivalry will play out.

Quotes from the book:

"It became clear to Moore that, no matter how much science went into conceiving of silicon wafers, there would always be an artlike skill associated with their production." - Robert Curley

"Let me tell you something: High-end semiconductor manufacturing is black magic. Both the processes and tools used for it are very complex. ASML’s EUV lithography machine is probably the most complex tool humankind ever developed since it stopped jumping between trees. It took billions of Euros and decades of experience to perfect it. Other experienced lithography machine suppliers failed at it. China has no experience in high-end semiconductor manufacturing tools with the exception of one-off/few-off prototypes." - Bora Taş on Quora

The belief in the value of scientific truth is not derived from nature but is a product of definite cultures. - Max Weber

One sentiment which is assimilated by the scientist from the very outset of his training pertains to the purity of science. Science must not suffer itself to become the handmaiden of theology or economy or state. The function of this sentiment is likewise to preserve the autonomy of science. For if such extra-scientific criteria of the value of science as presumable consonance with religious doctrines or economic utility or political appropriateness are adopted, science becomes acceptable only insofar as it meets these criteria. In other words, as the "pure science sentiment" is eliminated, science becomes subject to the direct control of other institutional agencies and its place in society becomes increasingly uncertain. - Robert K. Merton