The United States and Japan want to "pull small circles" to restrict high-tech exports to China

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

According to Japan's "Yomiuri Shimbun" recently reported, the Japanese and U.S. governments are exploring the establishment of a new high-tech export control transnational mechanism, but also consider allowing willing European countries to join.

Control high and new technologies

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the United States has imposed strict export controls on many Chinese companies such as Huawei, but the United States believes that there are limitations in the mechanism that only includes its own country, and it is necessary to involve other countries to establish new mechanisms. The Japanese government also believes that the new mechanism is effective and that participation in the mechanism with a dominant position can make it easier to predict the impact of the mechanism on Japanese companies.

In recent years, the United States has continuously suppressed Chinese companies in the field of science and technology. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the United States has significantly increased its pressure on China's high-tech industries and enterprises, and the Biden administration has also used the "entity list" and "chip ban" to continuously impose unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies. On December 16, 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department included eight Chinese companies in the "Chinese Military Enterprises" investment blacklist, and the U.S. Department of Commerce included 25 entities, including the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, the Academy of Military Medicine, and 11 of its research institutes, on the list of restricted exports. In mid-December, the U.S. government launched four consecutive waves of sanctions involving Chinese companies, covering dozens of Chinese companies or research institutions.

"After Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio came to power, he made 'economic security' a policy signboard, and one of the core purposes was to cooperate with the United States to suppress China, and to restrict China in terms of economic and trade and technology exports. In the field of technology control, especially in restricting the export of technology to China, the United States and Japan have common interests. Zhou Yongsheng, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, said in an interview with this newspaper.

Exposing Cold War mentality

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, in order to counter the Soviet Union and other communist countries, the Western countries established the "Coordinating Committee for Export Control of Communist Countries" in 1949, the "Paris Coordinating Committee". Today, the U.S. and Japanese governments want to establish another transnational mechanism for export controls for a small number of countries with advanced technology. The new mechanism being explored by the U.S. and Japanese governments could evolve into a "modern version of the Paris Coordinating Committee."

"At present, the international community has a multilateral export restriction framework, the Wassenaar Agreement." After the dissolution of the Paris Coordinating Commission in 1994, the list of embargoed items it had drawn up was later succeeded by the Wassenaar Agreement and continues to this day. The participants in the Wassenaar Agreement include more than 40 countries, including the United States, Japan, Russia, and the United Kingdom, but due to the different interests of various countries, this agreement has a certain looseness. Therefore, the United States and Japan want to establish a new, tighter, more coercive system and increase their control in the field of international science and technology. Zhou Yongsheng analyzed, "On the surface, the united States and Japan's move is to suppress China in the field of science and technology; in essence, the United States and Japan hope to use this to win over developed countries such as European countries and establish a technological blockade camp of developed countries with the United States and Japan as the core, targeting China and other developing countries." This act of 'pulling a small circle' to create confrontation has exposed the typical Cold War mentality of the United States and Japan. ”

Affect economic prosperity

While the United States and Japan are trying to "pull small circles" to restrict high-tech exports to China, China's global contributions in scientific and technological innovation and economic development are increasingly recognized. According to the Global Innovation Index Report 2021 released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's global ranking in the field of innovation has risen from 35th in 2013 to 12th, making it the highest-ranked middle-income economy and one of the fastest-improving countries in the world. French international expert Perimone said that in 2021, China's economic development will maintain its leading position in the world and bring many surprises to the world in the field of scientific and technological innovation, and China will continue to become an important engine to promote the recovery and growth of the world economy.

Zhou Yongsheng analyzed that the global economic prosperity needs to be promoted by science and technology, and scientific and technological exchanges are an important factor in promoting scientific and technological progress. The United States and Japan are exploring the establishment of a high-tech cross-border mechanism for export control, which reflects the obvious tendency of technological blockade. This kind of mandatory technology control does not conform to the law of the market, enterprises invest a lot of costs in research and development of science and technology, but can not be smoothly converted into benefits, will affect the development interests of enterprises themselves, may also affect the promotion and application of advanced technology in the international market; from the macro level, if the United States and Japan and other countries take this opportunity to reduce international technological exchanges, or even prohibit and isolate technical exchanges in some fields, it will hinder global technological progress and capital flows, have a negative impact on global scientific and technological innovation and popularization, and hinder the process of promoting economic development through science and technology on a global scale.