China & Technology: U.S. Finds Itself in Competition
Visitors look at a semiconductor device at the Semicon China semiconductor technology trade fair in Shanghai, China, March 17, 2021. (Aly Song/Reuters)
The week of December 6: China’s technological challenge, inflation, Build Back Better, and more.
The rise of an increasingly prosperous China has dented (and maybe even shattered — we’ll have to see) one or two happy stories. The first is the idea that as a country grows more wealthy it will eventually become more democratic. Many believed that a richer China would turn into a more democratic China. While Deng-era China was not only socially but also politically freer than its Maoist predecessor (to be sure, one of the lowest of low bars), the massacre in Tiananmen Square showed that that (very) partial relaxation came with strict limits. In more recent years, what political liberalization…
