Description
In 2018, the US Congress passed the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) and the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), both of which were designed to bring about a targeted decoupling with China in what lawmakers have called “emerging and foundational technologies.” This legislation embodies the most ambitious goal so far of America’s ‘tech war’ since it focuses not just on individual companies, such as Huawei, but two large new categories of technology – emerging and foundational. This paper examines why Congress has tried to pursue this ambitious form of tech decoupling and evaluates the impact of the legislation so far. Five years after the passage of ECRA and FIRRMA, the Department of Commerce has struggled to define these two new categories of technology and has been unable to implement the legislation in the manner originally envisaged by Congress. Despite this, and despite intense lobbying against these controls by business and industry, both Congress and the Executive appear to be expanding the tech war further to pursue “as large of a lead as possible” over China. We argue that Washington is now forsaking part of its traditional hegemonic role as the guarantor of global markets in favour of an approach prioritising national interests and the preservation of as much primacy as is compatible with the rise of a second superpower.
