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OPINION DECEMBER 02, 2022 | The Indian Eye 10

Embedded Rivalry: Technology as an Arbiter

in US–China Great Power Competition

The US intends to strengthen its capabilities to not only compete against strategic rivals, but also to enhance collective

action against global challenges, as well as shape the rules for technology, cybersecurity, trade and economics

AKSHAT UPADHYAY and Xi’s Work Report. It then teases Technology, despite not being overtly with the prioritization of technology
out the various issues, core as well as mentioned in the preface, is hidden for advancing US interests.
echnology has assumed criti- peripheral, related to technology that in plain sight. Climate change, Chi- The US intends to strengthen
cal importance in the ongoing underpin this competition. The impli- na and competition are undergirded its capabilities to not only compete
T‘strategic competition’ between cations for India are laid out briefly at by technology and that too, a specific against strategic rivals, but also to en-
the United States (US) and China. the end. set of technologies based on comput- hance collective action against global
This elevated role of technology is The NSS is divided into four ing, energy, biology and engineering. challenges, as well as shape the rules
evident in both countries recently re- broad sections. In the Preface, Pres- From tackling climate change through for technology, cybersecurity, trade
leased national security documents, ident Joe Biden identifies three core the commissioning of smart electric and economics. The implication is
sketching out the broad outlines of tenets of the document: advancing vehicles (EVs), and lithium batteries that all four are interlinked. In fact,
their conceptions of technology. A US vital interests; outmaneuvering to competing against China in the one of the unique facets visible in the
close reading of these texts, contextu- geopolitical competitors; and tack- field of 5G communications, quantum NSS is the assertion that technology,
alized through recent events, reveals ling shared challenges. While climate computing, internet of things (IoT), trade and security are to form the con-
a major schism that is likely to ‘silo’ change forms the shared challenge, semiconductors and artificial intel- necting bridge between Europe and
the world into two camps. In the com- China and Russia find their way into ligence (AI) based applications and the Indo-Pacific. Quad and AUKUS
petition for technology, the world is the list of geopolitical competitors. platforms, the entire NSS is awash are the most visible and securitized
likely to witness the manifestation of strands of this thinking.
a great power struggle which is likely The NSS also calls for the “devel-
to reshape the current structure of in- opment of new regimes where gaps
ternational relations. persist” to prevent the alleged “degra-
The US National Security Strat- dation of technological advantages”.
egy (NSS) was released on 12 Oc- The US expects its allies to contribute
tober 20221 and the Work Report to bolstering deterrence and investing
was submitted to the 20th National in US-like capabilities in their militar-
Congress of the Communist Party of ies. This has two implications: one is
China (CPC) by Chinese President Xi the likelihood of convergence of tech-
Jinping on 16 October 2022. In both nologies within a single techno-le-
documents, technology is starkly visi- gal-political system based on the West
ble not only as a competitiveness im- and separate from the one envisaged
perative, like Immanuel Kant’s thing- by China and which may also include
in-itself but is also embedded in the Russia. The rest of the countries will
various political, cultural, economic have to decide which technological
and social factors which purportedly and therefore political standard to
distinguish the two countries, repre- adhere to since they will theoretically
senting two diametrically opposite be incompatible with each other.
worldviews. The Brief analyses the There is also an acknowledge-
role of technology as a component US President Joe Biden with China’s President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of ment that the Indo-Pacific may be the
of the strategic competition between recent G-20 summit in Bali (ANI) next arena for this competition to play
the US and China in the 2022 NSS Continued at next page... >>

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