[ad_1]
BEIJING – China must accelerate the development of new-generation artificial intelligence as a "strategic issue," Chairman Xi Jinping told top Communist Party officials this week, in his latest exhortation to give China's control of new technologies and its dependence on the United States.
This is just a few days after the U.S. imposed restrictions on technology to a state-backed Chinese semiconductor maker, and just a few months ago.
These aggressive actions from the Trump administration, share of the world's largest economies, have made Xi to call – with increasing urgency – for China to become "self-reliant."
"Xinhua News Agency" "The Politburo", "Xi told a Politburo" group study "session".
China must "control" artificial intelligence and make sure it is "securely kept in our own hands," he was quoted as saying.
With no end in sight, it has emphasized the need for China to be able to stand on its own two feet, especially when it comes to the types of technologies it needs to propel its economy forward.
President Donald Trump chats with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Nov. 9, 2017. (Andy Wong / AP)
"Self-reliance" is the starting point for the struggle of the Chinese nation, Xi said last week in Guangdong, part of a four-day trip across China's south, where he made stops at an electrical appliance maker and an e-commerce industrial park .
A month earlier, in the north, he had urged China to "stick with the path of self-reliance amid rising unilateralism and protectionism" in the world.
The use of "self-reliance" recalls at Mao Zedong phrase invoked during the economic collapse of the 1960s North Korea and its contention that it can fend for itself.
But Xi – who has been stoking nationalism and hassle himself to rule China indefinitely – has invoked the phrase a rallying cry against President Trump's tariff-driven trade war. China, he is saying a lot, needs to do everything on its own.
"Xi is using 'self-reliance,' inherited from Mao's political ideology, to solve the economic problems triggered by the trade with the U.S.," said Qiao Mu, a dissident Chinese scholar who is now an independent analyst based in Washington.
[[Crossed wires: Why the U.S. and China are struggling to reach a trade deal ]
China, Trump has been unleashing a barrage of economic and legal weapons against Beijing.
Beijing's tools are relatively limited, given that it is so much more important than the United States, but it has been slapped over these key agricultural imports, such as soy beans and pork.
He is also telling US companies that such as Apple to move their manufacturing lines from China to the United States – however improbably that is.
The standoff has led to increasing talk in Washington of "decoupling" the American economy from China – a clumsy word, say analysts, that is tantamount to "deglobalization."
And that has injected new momentum into Xi's efforts.
"I think this is what Xi wanted to do anyway," said Bill Bishop, publisher of the Sinocism China Newsletter. "But Trump is encouraging Xi to appeal to his old-school roots, and self-reliance is a part of that."
The concerted promotion of self-reliance began with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce ZTE from doing business with U.S. companies. This law was punished by the United States of America and the United States of America.
After talking to Xi – those were more collegial days – Trump intervenes to grant ZTE a reprieve.
But the whole incident, which could have destroyed the Chinese company, served as a warning to Beijing that its core technologies were extremely vulnerable to America's political winds.
The Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Company, a Chinese chipmaker that warns of the threat of American national security.
[[China's new booze university wants to change ]
"Trade frictions with the U.S., and particularly the near-collapse of ZTE, has reinforced Chinese leaders' instinct for autarky," said Yanmei Xie of Gavekal Dragonomics, an economic research firm.
She noted that China's Made In China 2025 plan, the state-led industrial policy that is central to the trade tensions, has self-reliance as a chief objective.
"Hence the irony: China's self-reliance has inflamed trade tensions, and trade tensions have hardened China's determination for self-reliance," Xie said.
Indeed, for all the talk to self-reliance, Chinese agents are accused of stealing key industrial technology from American companies, especially in the aerospace industry. Earlier this week, the US Department of Justice has been stealing aircraft technology secrets from American companies.
[[China thinks the trade is not really about trade ]
Xi's calls for self-reliance come true Deng Xiaoping exactly 40 years ago, a change unleashed China's economic power.
Xi, during his trip to the south last week, visited many of the areas that were piloted for Deng's opening and reform, and pledged to continue propelling the economy for a new stage in China's development.
The confluence of talk about self-reliance and new efforts to generate reverence for Xi is no coincidence. Qiao, the dissident academic, says Xi is trying to strengthen his power at a time of slowing economic growth.
This will continue next week, when it will be held in Shanghai, part of its efforts to promote investment in China. American business leaders like Bill Gates and companies Honeywell will be there, but the Trump administration has declined.
Many outside experts are in the business of Xi's economic vision and his pledges to continue "reform and opening," noting his recent promotion of state-owned enterprises. Some even call Xi's vision "neo-Soviet."
"This is part of a broad structural shift in the U.S.-China relationship," Bishop of the Sinocism's newsletter said, "can not beat the two leaders when they meet next month." "Even if Xi and Trump can reach a cease-fire at the G-20, they're just playing for time rather than returning to a normal trajectory."
Yang Liu contributed to this report.
Read more:
[Trump’s China crackdown enjoys wide support]
[Why China would withstand a trade war longer than Trump thinks]
[China tries to boost its economy for long trade battle]
Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Like Washington Post World on Facebook
[ad_2]Source link
