Race for Global Tech Dominance a ‘Wake up Call’ for Democracies: Report

A think tank from Australia encourages democratic countries. “step up” If they want to catch up with Beijing, they must be innovative in technology and competitive in strategic rivalry.

The University of Michigan has conducted a year-long study Study According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Beijing leads the world in 37 technologies out of 44. These technologies include many critical technologies like energy, defense, and space.

ASPI’s report revealed that China has ten of the most prestigious research institutions in the world, and that the communist regime produces nine times more high-impact papers that the country second.

According to ASPI, “our dataset reveals an enormous gap between China, the U.S. and everyone else”

The U.S. is currently ranked second in 44 categories.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is leading the world in seven categories–including high-performance computing, quantum computing and vaccines.

Australia is ranked among the top five countries for nine technologies including cyber security and critical minerals extraction, processing, electric batteries, hydrogen and 3D printing.

According to the report, only one-fifth of Beijing’s most significant papers were written by researchers who had completed postgraduate training in a Five Eyes country (USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

China generated 48.49%, according to the report. This is a result of high-impact papers in advanced aircraft engine and hypersonics. China also has seven of the 10 top research institutes in this field.

The think tank also concluded that Beijing is the world’s leader in space-related technology and defense.

ASPI said that Beijing could be a “stranglehold on the global supply” If the technology makes it commercially viable and can be manufactured, it will be considered critical technology.

According to the report, these risks are made worse because of the willingness of Chinese Communist Party(CCP) to use coercive means outside of the global rules based order that punishes countries and businesses. This includes the withholding of critical technologies.

“China’s leadership is the result of deliberate design and long term policy planning, as repeatedly outlined and repeated by Xi Jinping.

Xi Jinping’s Plan for Tech Domination

The CCP presented a plan called “Made in China 2025” in 2018 that aimed to make China self-sufficient in 10 sectors of technology by 2025. This plan was later changed to the “China Standards 2030” Plan.

These “Standards” will allow the CCP to be a leader in cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and IoT (internet of things) big data. CCP plans to intensify efforts to develop technical standards and eventually export them to the international markets.

The U.S. accuses Beijing of preventing fair competition, while justifying the theft foreign technology in order to support the national interest of becoming a high tech manufacturing powerhouse.

U.S. intelligence agencies were shocked when Beijing tested a hypersonic missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It traveled around the globe, demonstrating its technological abilities. Beijing denied however that it had ever tested hypersonic weapons.

In September 2022, Biden’s Administration passed the U.S. CHIPS Act, which would have denied Beijing access to advanced chipmaking and semiconductor technologies. This increased the U.S.-China strategic rivalry.

The U.S. Department of Commerce published its Strategy for the CHIPS for American Fund (after the Act was passed).PDF)–A $50 billion investment to support the U.S. economic and national security.

According to the ASPI report, “The Intelligence Community has a crucial role in both building capabilities and informing decision-makers.”

“To catch up with China, governments from all corners of the globe must work together. They should also pay more attention the Indo-Pacific as the centre of technological innovation and strategic competition.

What Democratic Nations Can Do

A “strategic crucial technology step-up is necessary for Western democratic countries to catch up to China.

ASPI provided 23 policy recommendations for democratic countries and allies to work together and individually against an aggressive Beijing.

Innovations such as technology visas, R&D grants and venture capital from allies, sovereign wealth funds, technology visas, and technology visas between allies are some of the recommendations. Also, specialised scholarships for students, technologists, and technologists who work at the forefront in critical technology research, will be reactivated the university sector.

“The intelligence groups play a vital role in informing decision makers and building capability. Five-Eyes and Japan should create an intelligence analytical centre focused on China technology, ASPI countries.

“While China leads, democracies need to be aware of the potential power of their aggregate lead as well as the collective strengths of regions or groups (for example the EU, the Quad, and AUKUS to name a few).

However, such aggregate leads can only be realized through deeper collaboration between allies and partners, increased investment in talent and commercialisation, as well as more targeted intelligence strategies.

The authors stated that while catching up is costly, the cost of inaction can be much greater.