ASD Fellow for Emerging Technology Lindsay Gorman discusses Europe’s place in the new U.S.-China “Tech Cold War,” and the importance to the U.S. of strengthening ties to our transatlantic partners.
“A decade ago, a European scholar asked a Chinese scholar, “What does China-European strategic partnership look like?” The Chinese scholar responded: “We hope that when China goes to war with the United States, Europe will at least remain neutral.”
The looming “tech cold war” between the United States and China may now provide an initial test of that proposition. In May, Google became the first of many U.S. tech firms to announce its split from Chinese telecom giant Huawei in compliance with a new U.S. Commerce Department regulation. If implemented stringently, the regulation—which prohibits U.S. firms from doing business with Huawei without a government license—would shake the tech and telecom industries worldwide, potentially delay Europe’s 5G rollout plans, and begin to decouple the U.S. and Chinese tech sectors in the name of national security. Stuck in the middle will be Europe.”