TECHtonic shifts between the U.S. and China are shaking up geopolitical relations and global supply chains. Media analysis, and even more thoughtful think tank analysis, tends to interpret what’s happening as either temporary instability attributable to the national leadership currently in place (pick your favorite flavor — tart Trump or lingering after-taste Xi) — or to a more permanent change resulting from zero-sum technology competition as we head into the 21st century. Understanding the underlying reality is more complex — somewhat akin to attempting to forecast the risk, and factor in real estate valuations, for the seismic dynamics of the San Andreas Fault, While simple and clear-cut answers tend to beguile, the ‘science’ is always more complex. Here’s an excellent piece of analysis by media outlier The Economist rigorously interpreting the significance of some of the latest tremors, especially the differential pressures bearing on software and hardware as the U.S. and China move toward de-coupling:
TECHtonic Shifts
Published by Terry Cooke
Terry Cooke is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GC3 Strategy, a company started in 2002 which currently acts as operating partner to public private partnership platforms in the energy and environment sector and the public health sector and also offers consultancy services relating to U.S.-Greater China technology supply chains. Terry was a 2010 Public Policy Scholar at the Kissinger Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His book Sustaining U.S.-China Cooperation in Clean Energy was published by the Wilson Center in 2012. From 2006-2008, Terry was Director of Asian Partnership Development for the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. In 2003, Terry left the U.S. Senior Foreign Commercial Service having served as the U.S. Government's top commercial official in Taipei, Taiwan and Berlin, Germany and as the deputy senior commercial officer in Tokyo, Japan. Terry also served as Commercial Officer in Shanghai, China from 1988-90. Terry received his PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985. He has diplomatic proficiency in Mandarin (Chinese), Japanese, German, French and also limited proficiency in Hindi/Nepali. View more posts
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