OK, that’s rich. A prominent Chinese academic warned that the United States now views technology competition between itself and China “less as a matter of innovation, and more as one of national security.”

I scoff not because she’s wrong, but because U.S. thinking is only catching up with that of China, which has long considered technology essential to the country’s sovereignty and survival — the very foundation of national security.

Recent events highlight Beijing’s thinking. There’s nothing wrong with this approach — I share it and believe it should be more widespread — but the insinuation that somehow the U.S., or the West more broadly, is in the wrong is laughable. If it’s worth a chuckle or a snort of derision, it’s because of how the policy is being implemented — poorly, inconsistently and without a sense of the stakes.

© The Japan Times