The Dutch government continues to withhold critical export licenses for sales to China by ASML, a Dutch semiconductor manufacturing equipment company. Similarly, Germany has blocked the sale of advanced technology to China and recently announced the establishment of a new state-owned investment fund designed to buy stakes in local companies targeted by non-European Union states for strategic tech acquisitions.
The economic dimensions of techno-nationalism will increase but it is the ideological underpinnings of techno-nationalism that has accelerated Sino-US decoupling faster than anything else. Additionally, one of Mr Trump’s recent executive orders cites WeChat as complicit in Beijing’s censorship of alleged human rights violations against the Uighur and other Muslim populations in China’s far Western province of Xinjiang.
Making this a virtual no-win situation for Chinese companies are two Chinese laws: The National Intelligence Law and the Cybersecurity Law, both passed in 2017. Both require Chinese entities to turn over data, encryption codes and any other requested information to the Communist Party when asked.