A new report warns that China may soon be able to rule the US economy and military using cutting-edge technology – a sign that the country is concerned about China’s recent leap in technological advancement.
The report was compiled exclusively by the think tank Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The report concluded that the US would not only have to back down with China’s advances in technology or risk, but also become subservient to China.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reacted to the report’s release, saying, “I need not tell you that advances in science and technology are set to define the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.” “They will generate game-changers in health and medicine, food security and clean energy.”
The report identifies three major “technology battlefields,” including microelectronics, 5G connectivity, and artificial intelligence, that “could represent the next chapter of the industrial revolution.”
China is already making major strides in expanding technologies that could outpace the US.
And it can have some disastrous consequences. In a worst-case scenario, the report notes, China could take control of the rare earth minerals, meaning that “the US military is crippled, and the nation plunged into depression,” and “Americans are forced to live in a world where the where China can close the technology tap.”
As a result, “the United States and other democracies will become economically dependent, losing their engines of world prosperity and freedom of action,” the report warned.
In short, the think tank argues that there is “substantial cause for concern” about China winning the technology race.
But it’s not game over for America. The report concluded that the country could use existing industries to “make an advantage in critical technologies”, while also investing in “the technology to bring hardware manufacturing back to the US”.
According to the report, the US will have to act by the end of this decade to ensure that China does not gain the upper hand – a dire warning, representative of the emergence of a major power struggle between world powers.
What will actually happen is anyone’s guess. After all, China is already staring at the barrel of a rapid population bomb that could wreak havoc on its economic ambitions. But the stakes, at least, are as clear as ever.