US-China Trade War

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020

What’s Worth Reading

How China is trying to dominate the digital currency market: While we are busy fighting the battle over TikTok, China is making moves to dominate the currency markets of the future. This is a must-read story. (Also: Triangle Entanglement — As the U.S. and China drift apart, Taiwan is caught in the middle of their … Continue reading What’s Worth Reading

September 13, 2019September 13, 2019

A new (tech) front in US-China Trade war?

“Firms such as Huawei, Tencent, ZTE, Alibaba, and Baidu have no meaningful ability to tell the Chinese Communist Party “no” if officials decide to ask for their assistance,” said Christopher Ashley Ford, assistant secretary in the State Department’s bureau of international security and nonproliferation. His speech is another shot across the bow in the US-China trade war. What I am surprised is that there is no mention of DJI, which just might be the biggest eye in the sky for China. The Information has the analysis, but the speech transcript removes all ambiguity about how US is thinking about Chinese technology.

June 5, 2019June 4, 2019

Tech & the Trade Wars

America is at war with China. Instead of guns, bombs, and bullets, the war is being fought in the business arena. The media calls it a trade war. And like all wars, there will be those who end up paying the price for it — namely, everyday Americans. As Brad Feld, partner with The Foundry Group, wrote on his blog about the tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, “Many BigCos are simply treating the tariff like a tax and passing it on, either directly or indirectly, to the consumer.”

The New York Times points out that many companies are looking to figure out how to become less reliant on China, including finding second sources for their products. While many industries can find ways around China, the technology sector is going to be very messy. For example, there is very little manufacturing capability in the US when it comes to semiconductors, as many of the production lines have been outsourced to China and other parts of Asia. Continue reading “Tech & the Trade Wars”