Inside the latest developments of the US-China tech relations, big tech leaders convened with US lawmakers in California to elucidate their experiences on working with China, on potential opportunities and challenges.
Over the three-day trip, a delegation of 10 members of the House Select Committee on the “Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party” journeyed to the West to meet industry leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, Disney CEO Robert Iger and other high-profile executives from the likes of Microsoft, Google, Scale AI, and Palantir.
The agenda also detailed debatable events with venture capitalists, former studio executives, producers, and screenwriters with prior work experience in China.
Between April 5 – 7, the discussion between the lawmakers and tech leaders highlighted the key areas of concern regarding the tech and media industries’ role in America’s growing complexities with China.
The dependence of these industries which rely on the availability of workforce in China and its massive audiences escalates concerns of supply chain risks with the censorship controls.
Following closely after the previous week’s contentious meeting in California between House speaker Kevin McCarthy, a bipartisan congressional delegation and Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, which added fuel to the frangible US-China tech rivalry, the Silicon Valley meeting irradiated an array of topics related to China’s tech competition.
Big Tech Leaders And US Lawmakers: A Dynamic Symposium
The committee’s first hearing in February heralded that the US faces a ‘technological, ideological, economical, and military threat’ from China, surmising that its Chairman Mike Gallagher told lawmakers to maintain a productive conversation with companies invested substantially in China’s interests.
“We need to make sure that the power of the Chinese economy is not seducing certain companies into betraying American values.”
The predominant theme of this convention was described as a fact-finding mission, where conversations will inform both parties involved in future Silicon Valley-China policy-making. The confabulation would also entail the increasing exports of US products to China and how the Federal government could safeguard intellectual property.
Ro Khanna, a committee member representing Silicon Valley had expressed his eagerness to debrief fellow lawmakers and the value affixed for them to learn more about cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and climate tech. He described the wisdom behind every Congress member spending a week in Silicon Valley.
“Technology has been and will be defining so many spheres – from the economy, and national security to our citizenship concerns. People need to at least understand it if not be immersed in it.”
Discoursing about Disney-China’s business relations, the meeting with Bob Iger focused on the censorship of creative content where these executives spoke of dealing with self-censorship to ensure it doesn’t offend any government.
In Silicon Valley, Microsoft President Brad Smith presented a few cautionary tales in artificial intelligence, which had been narrowing the gap between the development of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. Smith and other executives from Palantir and Google attended the luncheon with committee members and also made them aware of a few key components utilized in tech devices which hinged on rare mineral mining and processing.
Khanna counted upon the conversations with Disney CEO Iger and Apple CEO Cook to lead to potential policy proposals. The lawmakers were also slated to meet and discuss with venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and SV Angel on Thursday, anticipating suggestions on how the government could collaborate with the private sector to stay ahead of the curve of emerging technologies.
Khanna was hoping that the big tech leaders would candidly divulge the complexities and progress in divesting supply chains out of China and the utilization details of the export revenue.
“I would like to see more of our electronic production reverse back to the United States. How do we do it? What do they need from the US government to be able to do it?”
Whilst understanding that China is a ginormous market for US exports, it seems ideal to know that there needs to be a balance between the export market and preventing the theft of intellectual property and reducing the trade deficit. By not allowing sensitive technology in the hands of China, the US would also be able to focus on supply chain vulnerabilities and weaknesses that could affect the economy.
US-China Tech Rivalry
Despite raging conflicts between the business sectors of the US and China, the United States’ technology and entertainment spectrum relies on the consumer and labor market of China. To cite an example, Tim Cook recently reaffirmed Apple’s longstanding partnership in Beijing after swooping $24 billion worth of sales in China in 2022.
The bipartisan committee was lauded for their unanimous call for seeking ways to increase exports to China alongside taking back production to the US or allied countries.
These prolific meetings are also on the heels of the congressional hearing that grilled TikTok CEO Shou Chew for the company’s ties to ByteDance, China and privacy concerns. A fast-track bill to ban TikTok in the US was the committee’s deliberate move which was blocked by members of the party. In November, Huawei and ZTE’s communication devices were banned by the Federal government, citing ‘unacceptable risks’ to national security.
