Everywhere you look, it seems China is pulling ahead in the race to produce the technologies of the future. From accumulating vital inputs like critical minerals and rare earths to building green energy hardware like lithium batteries and solar cells, Chinese companies dominate.
So what isn’t China good at producing? A recent report has shed light on the key technologies where Beijing itself sees the country trailing. Researchers at the Center of Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), a Washington D.C.-based think tank, analyzed a series of articles from 2018 on 35 of China’s technology “choke points.” Although slightly dated, the reports — published in Science and Technology Daily, the official outlet of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology — represent an unusually candid probe into the weak links in China’s supply chain, amid the country’s accelerating drive to achieve industrial self-reliance.
This week, The Wire looks at where China is pl
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On Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo met with Wang Wentao, the Chinese Commerce Minister, in Washington. It marked the first cabinet-level meeting in Washington between the U.S. and China during the Biden administration, and it was a signal of the Commerce Department’s increasingly central role in the current U.S.-China relationship. Usually, the Commerce Department is far from the center of anything, but as Katrina Northrop reports, the department is uniquely suited to address the China challenge.
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