winners of the national top sci-tech award, present certificates to representatives of winners of the State Natural Science Award, the State Technological Invention Award, the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 24, 2024.
These dynamics were at play before the rise of artificial intelligence. AI’s now-ubiquitous relevance has added another layer to the tech war. The confluence of the China “threat” and the “risks and opportunities” presented by AI has created an opening for American tech companies to get on their government’s good side — and stifle the AI capabilities of the country home to their major competitors in the process.
While the United States expedites the great tech divide, leaders in Beijing are in turn expediting their plans to domesticate innovation – which predate America’s punitive measures aimed at China’s tech sector, but have been sped up by them. As Xi Jinping put it at last week’s National Science and Technology Awards Conference, “The scientific and technological revolution and the great power game are intertwined.
Xi’s speech only reiterated the across-the-board approach China is taking to advance innovation – both for its own economic successto compete with the United States. Washington’s more recent moves toward integrating government and industry in recent years has been more of a divergence in a U.S. policy context. Its continuation is also contingent on the upcoming presidential election.