A Newer World Order

Tighter export controls on computer chips escalate the U.S. rivalry with China

- By Will Henshall

NOT BY CHANCE DID THE ERA OF WORLDWIDE free trade-globalization-coincide with the hope of successive U.S. governments that the capitalism that was lifting billions of people out of poverty would also show China the merits of democracy. The two were invariably linked, after all, in the Cold War that the West had won.

But China preferred to launch a new rivalry, promoting a new authoritarian system that offers the wealth of capitalism while exploiting elements (surveillance, centralization) of what generates so much of that wealth: digital tech.

That's why the Biden Administration announced on Oct. 17 that it is tightening export controls on semiconductor chips used for artificial intelligence and the equipment used to manufacture them. AI is considered key to efficiencies that could provide not only huge advantages in business and commerce, but also even more critical advantages in a country's military and defense. To ensure that more semiconductors are made in America, the Administration last year hailed passage of the CHIPS and Science Act. And to prevent China from acquiring or producing advanced chips, the new Commerce Department rules aim both to close loopholes in controls announced a year ago, and to account for technological developments since.