China surpassed the US’s GDP in purchasing power parity terms in 2013, and has a considerable lead on its competitor in patent filings, research and development and key science metrics. Washington and its allies have responded with an expanded trade and technology war against Beijing, and efforts to hem the Asian nation in militarily.
America’s technology lead vis-à-vis China is rapidly “eroding” and in some places has disappeared completely, and the US and its AUKUS allies must pool their resources to compensate, Andrew Shearer, the director-general of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence, has recommended.
“We are seeing our longstanding technological edge start to erode, and in some cases that edge is totally gone,” Shearer said, speaking at the Sydney Dialogue, an Australia-based technology summit.
The chief spook also warned that the military balance of power in the Indo-Pacific was starting to “shift away from the United States and its allies,” thus “undermining deterrence.”
Also speaking at the forum, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt warned that China is “a new kind of competitor” for the West.....more below
