One of the major causes of the US-China trade dispute as well as the main point of the latest US defense bill was because of tech. The US accused China of stealing tech secrets; China, for its part, hasn't admitted anything to stealing tech from the US and is accusing the country of baseless accusations.
Chinese law requires companies operating domestically to provide "domestic intelligence" when required to. Now, CNBC reports that the two countries are finally agreeing on one thing-the protection of big tech through a crackdown on things. It's almost akin to creating a safety bubble through actions not different from how their respective national security agencies protect their secrets.
According to officials from both countries, China and the US are looking at policies that will regulate these companies the way national interests are. However, at the end of the day, these companies are in the business of making money. These same officials speculate that getting strict with these companies may result in loss of income as well as tighter room to operate.
China and the US are still in a dispute of sorts, and it might not just trade that's in danger of becoming a battleground.
Sources say that China and the US are forcing a crackdown on allowing firms to operate and invest. China is just protecting its interests like it's always done, however; this is the case why Apple and Amazon cannot penetrate the "Great Chinese Firewall" easily. Amazon was forced to comply with the rule of tech sharing with the government.
NY Times reports the same thing happening in the US, but in a different light; the US, meanwhile, is cracking down hard, not even allowing Chinese tech groups to put up businesses at all simply because of baseless accusations of information theft. Huawei, which had been working with the US government for years supplying communication materials and similar tech, was a victim of this sudden phobia.
It isn't clear how they plan to continue the witch hunt for erring tech companies, especially those that are in existing deals "with the enemy," so to speak. Both countries, however, might be wrong in this case. It seems the tech industry is another victim in the making of a destructive policy started by the US, which is doing more harm than good.
