Thesis Title: Can Chinese Firms Break Free from the US Hi-Tech Blockade? Investigating the New Era of Techno-Nationalist Globalization
Abstract: We seem to be at the dawn of a new era of what some call techno-nationalist globalization, in which the national ownership of advanced technology has become a key security issue in geopolitical rivalry.
By 2016, the US was able to significantly shift US policy from being the premier cheerleader of free trade globalization to one of its biggest skeptics. A second Cold War between the US and China seems to be coming, and the US has been blockading Chinese advanced technology, encompassing not just export bans on US firms but also pressuring its allies in Northeast Asia and Europe in an effort to decouple from Chinese hi-tech.
This research project proposes to investigate these still fresh transformations in globalization and world order from the perspective of Chinese advanced technology firms now under attack from the world’s hegemon, especially Huawei. The key Research Questions will be: first, since these transformations are so new, to what extent have Western and/or American firms actually decoupled from China? And how can Chinese firms break free from the US-led hi-tech blockade? What is the best relationship between these firms and with the Chinese and other states? Can these Chinese firms further develop by relying solely on their domestic market, or what prospects for expanding and competing in the Global South and Europe? More broadly, what are the implications of these new challenges on how we conceptualize globalization, the nationality of global value chains, and structural power in world order? Therefore, to answer these questions will not only be highly policy-relevant for China and other emerging markets, but it will also contribute to core debates on how to understand the future of globalization and world order.
First Supervisor:
Social media: Dr Sean Starrs