In case you missed it, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet delivered keynote remarks at the Center for New American Security about the urgency of creating a national technology strategy, to secure America’s technology leadership and democratic values in our strategic battle with China.
I gather, from the Senator’s remarks, that he hates China as much as I do, but for slightly different reasons.
The Senator made some comments during his keynote speech:
America’s technology leadership gave democracy a crucial edge over authoritarianism in the 20th century — by powering our economy, fortifying our defense, and driving the development of new tech toward our deepest values. The question is whether that will remain true in the 21st century, because we are quickly losing ground…
Well, we’re not losing ground in terms of ‘fortifying our defense’, at least. As we all know, the U.S. spent about $7 trillion on the Pentagon over the past 10 years, and Congress seems intent to spend even more, over the next 10 years. China, meanwhile, spent about $1.4 trillion over the past decade — less than a quarter of what our Congress spent on defense.
So I don’t hate China for spending less than America on their military. It’s silly to hate someone who’s politely giving you a huge head-start.
Senator Bennet’s concern wasn’t military, either. Technology is the problem.
America’s technology leadership gave democracy a crucial edge over authoritarianism in the 20th century — by powering our economy, fortifying our defense, and driving the development of new tech toward our deepest values.
The question is whether that will remain true in the 21st century, because we are quickly losing ground. Pick a key technology — from AI to quantum computing to hyper-sonics — and you’ll find China either racing ahead or closing the gap.
This wasn’t always the case, of course, with various other technologies. The Chinese were inventing gunpowder back when my European ancestors were still living in caves. Same goes for the invention of the magnetic compass, printing, and papermaking. Also, the parachute, and the propeller. They were inventing matches when my ancestors were still rubbing sticks together.
But now that America has thousands of amazing technological inventions under its belt — like, for example, Facebook and other technological intrusions into our privacy — we’ll find — if we pick a key technology — that “China is either racing ahead or closing the gap”.
We won’t mention the fact that nearly all of our amazing technological products are now manufactured in China, which makes them wonderfully easy to copy.
Nor does Senator Bennet want to mention this either, apparently. Maybe because the “copied” products aren’t exactly “copies”. Presumably, they are the real deal, coming off the very same assembly lines, except with instructions in Chinese.
But the Senator will gladly mention 5G.
The wake-up call for me was 5G. Even though experts had told us for years about its importance, Washington was still caught completely flat-footed, as was industry in the United States.
And in this case, we were lucky because the Senate Intelligence Committee was able to sound the alarm, invest in alternatives like O-RAN, and keep most of our allies from signing a 30-year contract with Beijing. I think everyone on this phone call knows how hard it is to get out of a phone contract themselves, and the last thing we would want for our allies is a 30-year contract with Beijing.
Personally, I’m too excited about 5G. I doubt I’ll be able to afford it, at least until 6G comes out and the price of 5G drops. And I actually sort of enjoy it when Netflix stops streaming in the middle of the movie, because it gives me a chance to get another beer out of the fridge.
Also, the last thing I would want for our allies is a 30-year contract with any American telecom company. Why wish bad things on your friends?
But I really, really hate China, for a completely different reason.
The Chinese are distracting. With all of their economic progress, lifting a billion people our of abject poverty over the past few decades, they’re constantly distracting us Americans from the corporate takeover of Congress, and our (largely voluntary) loss of privacy, and so many pesky problems.
If only the Chinese had been happy to remain in poverty. We could be dealing with our own problems.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.