What would Joseph Needham say about the US Tech War with China? Probably the same as Bill Gates…

Few people know who Joseph Needham was… but everyone knows who Bill Gates is! They also know that Bill recently weighed in with his views on the US Tech War by stating that “paranoia on China is a ‘crazy approach’ to innovation". He observed that if anything there needs to be an ‘objective test’ of security claims against Huawei (the Chinese ‘private enterprise’ telco flagship) and that trying to stop Beijing from developing innovative technologies is beyond realistic. 

Joseph Needham, the late British scientist, who wrote an encyclopedia on the history of “Science and Civilisation in China”, would have agreed with Bill. So far, the Needham Research Institute has produced 27 books cataloguing Imperial China’s scientific, technological and other innovations. Many of these innovations - such as gunpowder, the compass and the mechanical clock - ended up in the West providing the platform for our own technological advancement. According to Needham, we owe a great deal to Chinese ingenuity. This is why he would definitely agree with Bill Gates that "the U.S. and China should take advantage of each other's innovations, rather than turn against one another". We have been doing this for millennia anyway. 

(Photo: Needham in his lab)

It is ridiculous to believe that the West is, and will continue to be, the font of all scientific and technological knowledge. Disruptive innovation often comes from the periphery. For example, Huawei is working on many challenging projects in emerging markets that will lead to innovation. Yes, we all know that Huawei is a hard case and probably has lots of government links. Which telco company doesn't?

Still, most scientists and technologists, even in China, are part of a national innovation ecosystem that links into global R&D and value chains. Gates makes the point that code is written all over the world. I wonder why are we not more paranoid of Indian software developers? Or Poles? I am sure their governments are also talking to them about how to gather information about what significant allies and rivals are up to. Cyber espionage for state, industrial and criminal purposes is alive and well everywhere in the world. Perversely, this security situation may also be a spur to innovation in other fields. 

When it comes to ‘gathering information’, we know that China is no different from the US or any other nation. Surely, it is better to include the Chinese in the global innovation ecosystem in order to gain access to the data by which we can determine what Gates calls "objective measures" that need to be adopted (universally?). Pushing China into a corner by trying to isolate them will actually shut down many of the channels from which 'objective information' can be gathered. What is the alternative to hard data? Decisions will be made from ethnocentric, ideological premises of "Us Right vs Them Wrong". We saw how well that worked during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. With what we currently know about international relations, this sort of hypocritical ideological reaction is not good enough when it comes to building a peaceful, global community. Both China and the US need to lift their game and consider the big picture! I suspect China may be becoming increasingly open to this. After all, according to Needham, China has been innovating for much longer than the US. Will the US join the global club again? Will it once again start promoting the open values it was previously so admired for? Only a Post-Trump administration will offer clues whether or not this is possible.

Joseph Needham, as one of the founders of UNESCO, was a great supporter of multilateralism. He pushed for UNESCO's extension to nations outside of Europe and America. I think he would want to see China and the US working together to build a multipolar world. 

Richard Francis 

The Alpine Views Blogger