Security News > 2022 > April > USA's plan to decouple its tech with China lacks a strategy – report

The USA's policy of decoupling its technology industries from China lacks a strategy, a theory of success, and an understanding of how to achieve its ill-defined goals, according to a new paper by Jon Bateman from the thinktank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The United States cannot afford simply to muddle through technological decoupling, one of the most consequential global trends of the early twenty-first century," wrote Bateman, a former senior intelligence analyst, policy adviser and speechwriter at the US Department of Defense, in the document, titled "US China Technological 'Decoupling', a Strategy and Policy Framework."

Bateman acknowledges there is bipartisan support for measures controlling China's access to US tech, but contends that the issue of which strategic technologies should be controlled and to what degree, are left undefined.

"Where is the responsible stopping point - the line beyond which technology restrictions aimed at China do more harm than good to America?" asked Bateman, who also asserted that "Without a clear strategy, the US government risks doing too little or - more likely - too much to curb technological interdependence with China."

"A strategy for technological decoupling should consider more than just tech-specific or China-specific concerns," wrote Bateman.

They include maintaining a military edge over China by modernizing US forces through measures like incorporating private sector innovations or designing new warfighting concepts for near-peer battle while beefing up cybersecurity in the military.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/04/26/usas_plan_to_decouple_its/