The Return of Billiard Balls? US–China Tech War and China’s State-Directed Digital Capitalism

Figures & data

FIGURE 1 Chinese digital industries tree (the great banyan)

TABLE 1 A Timeline of US-China trade war and tech war

Time	Events
January 2018	The Trump administration imposed tariffs on China-made washing machines and solar panels, which expanded to flat-screen TV and satellite products in March.
March 2018	The US filed litigation at the WTO against China’s intellectual property policy.
April 2018	China retaliated by raising tariffs on US-made airplanes, cars, soybeans.
June 2018	The White House imposed more tariff on China’s “industrially significant technology,” including those related to the “Made in China 2025” program, to protect intellectual property on the ground of national security.
August 2018	China filed its complaints with the WTO.
December 2018	CFO of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was detained in Canada for the company’s violation of US sanctions against Iran.
May 2019	The Trump administration banned Huawei from purchasing key components from US companies.
October 2019	US Department of Commerce banned exports of components to Chinese AI companies SenseTime, HikVision, and Megvii on the ground of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
June 2020	The FCC designated Huawei and ZTE national security threats.
August 2020	Trump signed executive order forcing ByteDance to sell its TikTok business in the US due to national security reasons. A US court blocked Trump’s order in September 2020.
September 2020	US Department of Commerce banned unlicensed exports of chips to SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp), China’s largest chip producer.
November 2020	Trump signed executive order forbidding Americans from investing in companies with ties to Chinese military.
January 2021	The Biden Administration continued to impose tariffs against Chinese products; the New York Stock Exchange announced that it would delist China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.
June 2021	Biden signed executive order to revoke Trump’s ban on TikTok; Biden signed order to address “threat posed by the military-industrial complex” of China, forbidding investments in 59 Chines companies including Huawei and SMIC.
September 2021	US Department of Justice suspended charges against Meng Wanzhou, who conceded Huawei’s misconduct regarding Iran.
December 2021	US Treasury Department barred Americans from trading in the securities of eight Chinese tech firms including DJI; US Department of Commerce blacklisted China’s Academy of Military Sciences restricting its access to US exports.
August 2022	Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act to China’s competition in the semiconductor sector.
September 2022	The Biden administration prohibited US “advanced tech” firms receiving federal funding from building semiconductor factories in China for 10 years.