【英文】卡特中心报告：高科技在中美关系中的作用（61页）

英文研究报告 2023年03月01日 07:29 管理员

China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) marked the high-water point of bilateral relations between the U.S. and China.China was still technologically far behind the U.S. and other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as U.S. companies looked for a large pool of cheap and adequately skilled labor.With the lowering of tariffs on Chinese-made goods after China’s WTO accession, the two countries enjoyed a decade and a half of enormous mutual gains that lowered the cost of the digital revolution in the U.S. and lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty in China. The Chinese government also took advantage of foreign investment to absorb technologies from foreign companies and to use greater fiscal resources to build up its military and bolster industrial policy. Today, bilateral trade amounts to over $1 trillion a year, which continues to provide ample mutual benefit to firms and individuals across the two countries.

Yet, the narrowing asymmetry of power and technology have bred deeper mistrust and even hostility between the two countries. Since 2012, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s attempts to highlight China as a premier power in the world has encouraged hawks in the U.S. government to move China to the “center stage” of U.S. foreign policy with an increasing focus on China as the main competitor and strategic threat to the U.S.This report starts from a place that many from both sides can heartily agree — that the downward spiral in bilateral relations over the past six years must be managed more effectively in order to prevent worse dynamics from taking hold. In addition, the authors, all seasoned China watchers and experts in technology policy, identify several core logics instilling distrust and overall insecurity among policymakers on both sides. They then propose potential policies to mitigate these sources of mistrust and insecurity.Fundamentally, the points raised in this report narrow down to one powerful source of insecurity, the anarchic nature of the global order, along with one strong motivation for cooperation: the profit potential of the technology industry. Taken together, these provide some hope for realistic cooperation and conflict management, which the report sets forth.