DEVELOPMENT, TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY 

 The developing nations are the main beneficiaries of the trade wars, and technology race among the super powers, reckons Dayo Sobowale 

The US semi-conductors and chips race with China, with the advent of artificial intelligence and its huge import and potential for security, quality of life and commerce, highlights the desire of the two nations to dominate global events for the long term. The US has the technology for making chips and battery technology for electric vehicles [EV ] but  China has  the raw materials for making semi-conductors used to   make chips. The US is limiting exportation of technology for chips and EV batteries to China while China is hampering the exportation of raw materials for making both chips, semi- conductors EV batteries. I have christened this strategic trade face offs,  at first as a race for chips and semi-conductors reminiscent  of the arms race of the Cold War that started after WW2  between  the Soviet  Union and the US . The arms race dominated world politics and trade with its ideological divide putting a stamp on world trade, technology  and culture in many parts  of the world . Nothing illustrates that divide on global culture and way of life better than the tone, content and message on global economic development of the last World Economic Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco and the Brics nations conference on development and technology hosted by China in Beijing.

It is not as if I have forgotten Russia, the remnant of the USSR which dissolved into 15 component states after Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost and perestroika during the presidency of US President George Bush between 1988 and 1992.  Russia today is neck deep in war  over its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago and the US , NATO and the EU  have seized the opportunity to  recreate the spirit and menace of the Cold War and its arms race by  arming Ukraine  to the hilt in making Russia’s invasion a Waterloo and a deterrence  for  Russia against foreign  aggression and invasion especially on European soil . Putin of Russia on the other hand had been driven by what he perceived as retaliation on the  easy way the USSR collapsed ignominiously under Gorbachev  and has held the West  responsible for this hence his invasion of Crimea in 2004  under the US presidency of a careless President Barak Obama  during which the US lost its global credibility and capability to deter which also  led to Putin’s brazen invasion of Ukraine in similar circumstances in a Biden presidency .

Also waiting on the sidelines of this chips and battery race are the EU , Brexit  Britain ,  India ,  and  the electronically  savvy nations  of South East Asia in ASEAN  as well  as Taiwan, which China claims as its own and is ready  to claim it militarily anytime it  deems fit but for its fear of US military might which it is desperately trying to scuttle  with  its controlled aggression on the major seas  of its neighbours in the Pacific . Taiwan reportedly has the largest chip-making company in the world and the probability of China invading Taiwan and taking over that crucial supply chain has led to  the move by the US to  establish as quickly as possible a chip  making semi -conductor industry in the land of an old enemy Vietnam where it lost  the war of democracy  to the Viet  Cong , which  defeated  the US militarily and mightily then.  Which really demonstrates that in diplomacy and international relations there are no permanent enemies but permanent interests .

In taking on the might and power of the US globally China has teamed up with Russia more so nowadays.  Although China was an original member of Brics with Brazil, India and S. Africa. Now so many developing nations like Nigeria have joined Brics which China launched 10 years ago to link China to South Asia by rail. Since then China’s President Xi has launched three similar initiatives on a China-led Infrastructure and Development, Security and Culture [ which he labelled  Way  of life ]  Initiatives . The Development /Infrastructure Initiative speaks for itself by its name as well as the security one dominated now by the chips, semi- conductor technology race now accelerated by technology. Especially now with the world powers’ obsession with how artificial intelligence can be used for good or bad in military and security matters and in the very near future and in the long run . The Culture Initiative has to do with what both China and Russia in tow perceive as the moral decadence of the West inherent in the wide adoption of gay values ,  LGBTQ  rights   and     same-sex   marriage  as  European   values in both the US and EU . Ideologically China sees its brand of democracy and the one party state as superior to the multi- party state, tenure election plural democracy of the West. In this regard China is not willing to sit back and allow western culture and democracy to dominate the world. Especially with developing nations where the West markets democracy through globalization as going hand in hand with the free market economy and liberalization. China is therefore taking on the world on its own terms of trade and selling its own political culture and way of life. This is similar in many ways to how Colonialism spread its tentacles globally with the gun diplomacy and the bible. Or reminiscent of jihad which is by force of arms.

Anyway the developing nations of the world are the main beneficiaries of these trade wars, technology race and battle of ideas on the prospects  of  a  better  quality  of life. Which are bye products of the struggle  for domination of the world by the juggernauts of world  power and influence .This  is not a case or the story of when elephants fight it is the grass that suffers .  It is time for the grass to prosper.  It is also  a   good time  for  insightful  leaders  who   can  see through the conflicting  economic theories and ideas and borrow from experience on where the shoes have pinched before economically and financially and are able to know who the cap fits before boarding the plane for any  developmental  adventure or association .  With the right decision and choice, the omens should be good for the masses who elected the leaders of the developing world into power in the first instance.

Sobowale ia a news analyst with Arise News