Although the Sino-US trade war still has a two-month buffer period, Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the United States, has recently announced that it will completely suspend Huawei products, including mobile phones, notebooks, smart watches and other Huawei products. In fact, this year In January, AT&T, one of the largest carriers in the United States, and Verizon, another operator, forcibly put pressure on cooperation and canceled cooperation with Huawei. Although the two companies did not openly admit it, the reason why Huawei took the lead was because of the Sino-US trade game. FireWire? According to overseas media, one of the key reasons is that the United States wants to prevent China from developing in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, 5G and other new generations of wireless communication technologies and advanced computer fields.
Electronic communication field station on the FireWire
U.S. President Trump held a press conference at the White House last week, citing the 'China-US trade deficit has run out of control' as a reason to announce that according to the U.S. Trade Representative's Office (USTR), the 301 clause has been formulated on more than one hundred Chinese goods (values up to US$60 billion) punitive tariffs, which require China to reduce its trade deficit with the United States up to 100 billion U.S. dollars.
Southern Reporters noted that Trump’s wording at the press conference also focused on mentioning that punitive tariffs would be imposed on high-tech products and that Chinese investment in the United States would be limited to acquiring high-tech companies.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s high-tech industry’s export products are generally divided into five categories: pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace vehicles, electronic computers and office equipment, electronic and communications equipment, medical equipment and instruments, among which 15 are fine. sub option.
In the past five years, the export delivery value of China’s high-tech industries has steadily increased. Among them, the trend of pharmaceuticals and spacecrafts is stable with a small increase. Computers and office equipment have been declining since 2014, and they have recovered slightly in 2016 after two consecutive falls. Only exports of electronic communications equipment have increased year after year, becoming the main force driving exports.
Not only that, Chinese companies headed by BAT have a strong investment momentum in the United States, especially in the high-tech field.
According to the "2017 China Internet Venture Capital Report" released earlier this year by information data company IT Orange, China's key overseas investment capital industries in 2017 include corporate services (artificial intelligence, big data), hardware (wearable devices, robots, drones). , AR/VR), Automotive Traffic (unmanned, shared travel, electric new energy cars) etc.
Of these, the United States has become the most popular country among Chinese capitals. In 2017, the number of American companies that won investment accounted for 48%.
However, the US government has been cautious about the above-mentioned key industries in which Chinese capital invests overseas, especially because of concerns about security risks that may arise from the internet. The “Global Report on Chinese Enterprises (2017)” released by the global think tank also reminds With regard to the growing domestic populism in the United States and the safety review of relevant industry sub-sectors by the U.S. Foreign Investment Committee, Chinese companies should pay attention to strengthening the risk prevention awareness of the law while “going out”.
Stephen Bannon, former chief strategist of US President Trump, also said in a speech made after the end of the Nineteenth National Congress that China’s five major areas will launch full-scale challenges for the United States, including 'Made in China 2025', 5G, Belt and Road, Renminbi internationalization and financial technology.
'The strategic emerging industries and military-civilian dual-use areas in the field of science and technology are the most concern of the United States and are also the key areas that US interest groups have promoted in Trump's, Professor of the School of International Relations, Renmin University of China, Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Finance, China International Trade Promotion Wang Yizheng, a member of the Committee of Experts of the Council, told reporters from Nandu.
Wang Yijun pointed out that the United States has made huge profits in intellectual property, and the rise of China's high-tech industry is challenging the monopoly rights of the United States in terms of intellectual property rights. 'The United States believes that these measures to increase tariffs will hinder China from challenging the core of the United States. The pace of technology, thus maintaining the monopoly of the core technology, is an absolute advantage.
Wang Yixin believes that Industry 4.0 is an area where all countries will focus on competition in the future. In this field, the core technology and the right to speak will be determined. The standards set will involve the competition of the entire industry in the future, and even involve the establishment of new international standards.
At present, the Ministry of Commerce has issued a list of discontinuation products for US imports of steel and aluminum products 232 measures and solicited public opinions, intending to impose tariffs on some products imported from the United States, in order to balance the increase in imports of steel and aluminum products from the United States. The loss caused by tariffs to Chinese interests. Wei Jianguo, deputy director of the China International Economic Exchange Center, told the China Daily on the 24th that following the announcement of the first list of suspension of concessions, China is studying the second and third lists, such as Aircraft, Chips. And what China can do is not limited to the commodity sector. Tourism and other industries are also possible.
Wang Yijun also believes that, in fact, in the policy signed by Trump, the US$500 billion in trade taxes amounted to 3 billion U.S. dollars, which did not bring serious consequences. Trump’s move is to serve In the mid-term elections in the United States this year, 'The trade war has not yet been fought. If we really want to fight, it will be two months later. Now we are also coordinating to avoid trade wars.'
Information Security Is the Key to Huawei's Entry into the US
However, just as the United States announced that it would impose large-scale tariffs on imports from China, Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the US, also announced that it will completely suspend Huawei products, including Huawei products such as mobile phones, notebooks and smart watches. Huawei The company announced on the 22nd that it 'understood and respected its choices' and stated that Huawei's products sold through retailers in the United States reached the industry's highest standards of security, privacy and engineering.
According to overseas media reports, Best Buy has stopped placing orders with Huawei, and will completely stop selling Huawei products in the next few weeks. Next, whether other retail outlets will follow up attract people's attention.
In fact, at the CES show held in Las Vegas in January this year, it was reported that Huawei originally planned to cooperate with US operator AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph) to sell mobile phones in the United States, but it will be held at the press conference. In the first few hours, AT&T suddenly announced its abandonment of cooperation. A few days later, Verizon also announced plans to cancel the sale of Huawei mobile phones.
In the context of the Sino-US trade war, many people questioned this incident as the 'local protectionism' of the United States. They are worried that Huawei will have an impact on the local market.
However, Counterpoint Research Director Yan Zhanmeng told Southern Metropolitan News, 'The main reason may be at the chip level, Huawei's mate series uses a Kirin chip developed by Huawei itself, while other products mainly use the US's local Qualcomm chip.' Yan Zhanmeng told Nandu, patents, Manufacturing is not a big problem. 'Single terminal sales can be negotiated, but self-developed chips involve cloud computing and big data. This is a relatively sensitive information security issue in the US market.'
'Patents can be obtained through cross-licensing, or even purchase; manufacturing can also be made in the United States, such as Foxconn through the United States to build factories, but only information security issues are the most taboo in the United States. ' Yanzhan Meng believes that the US market does not trust Foreign manufacturers to complete data processing. 'China has obvious advantages in the technological transformation of a single terminal. This product should not have much resistance to enter the United States, as long as it does not involve information issues.'
In the eyes of people in the industry, artificial intelligence is the key to inciting the sensitive nerves of the United States. The big move of the United States may not only come from the trade deficit, but also takes into account the rise of new technologies including artificial intelligence.
China has advantages in AI applications
According to CB Insights, a research organization, the amount of financing for global AI start-up companies reached 15.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2017. The Chinese AI’s investment grew rapidly this year, reaching 7.3 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 48% of the 15.2 billion U.S. dollars, and exceeding 38% of the U.S. dollars.
Li Kaifu, chairman and CEO of Innovation Works, issued a statement in the MIT Technology Review in February 2018. He said that artificial intelligence technology is becoming increasingly powerful. Although the United States is a technological power, China has at least a 50% chance in this technology competition. You can win this contest.
Kai-fu Lee believes that China has more data than the United States, and data is the key to driving the development of artificial intelligence.
Previously, a “White Paper on Global Artificial Intelligence Talent 2017” issued by the Tencent Research Institute jointly with BOSS shows that, in the application layer of the AI industry, there are 3,400 American employees, accounting for 39.89% of the US; 24,300 people in China, accounting for Compared to 61.8%, the United States is mainly concentrated in the base layer and technology layer, while the Chinese AI industry's main employees are concentrated in the application layer.
China's application market is also more extensive. 'China has a larger sales market, and more complex landing scenes. It has a greater advantage than the United States in terms of application.' Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan said that in terms of the US AI industry environment, if Aside from basic research, active technological transformation and many startup companies are all Chinese, and the strengths of the underlying basic research are also very valuable. 'Furthermore, the strength of traditional industries is relatively weak, so new technologies will come in even bigger. living space. '
However, the above “White Paper” also shows that the current U.S. talents in natural language, processor/chip/machine learning applications are 3 times, 13.8 times, and 1.8 times that of China, respectively. China is only in the United States with the same number of people in the field of intelligent robots. 3 times. China's AI base layer talent pool is weak. Especially on processor/chip and AI technology platforms, China lacks driving energy, that is, lack of high-level talent support and high-end education system for the development of the industry.
Wang Yixi also pointed out that 'now that the import amount of China's chips has exceeded the amount of crude oil imports. This is a problem that must be solved.' China poses a challenge to the United States in the commanding heights of new industries once the monopoly of the chip is broken by China. China will not only reduce its imports of US chips, but also may export its products in the future, squeezing the US market. These concerns have caused the United States to 'see death' for Chinese chips. Chairman of the board of directors of Tencent Ma Huateng once said, 'Development Artificial intelligence requires four elements: Field, Big Data, Computational Capabilities and Talents. 'Today's identification of the scene, the abundance of big data, and the continuous improvement of computing power are the top priority.
'The wages of Chinese artificial intelligence practitioners are much higher than those in Silicon Valley and Great Britain. This is not a good match with the average labor force of the two countries and the average wage.' During the recent two sessions, the president of HKUST News, Liu Qingfeng, told Nandu. Reporter. The above-mentioned “White Paper” also shows that in the past three years, the average recruitment salary for AI-related positions is growing at a rate of nearly 8% per year. By 2017, the average recruitment salary for artificial intelligence jobs has reached RMB 25,800, which is much higher than general technology. Class positions. This indicates that China has scarce talents in the field of artificial intelligence, and the United States has far more than other countries in terms of quantity and quality.
In addition, among the 49 leading companies in the global AI field of statistics, the United States has the largest number of leading companies, with a total of 26, accounting for 53% of the total; China ranks second, with 12 companies, occupying a total of 24 %, There is still a big gap with the United States.
Although this is the case, now with the trade game between China and the United States, China’s new technology companies including artificial intelligence have become the focus. Once the new tariff policy is implemented, it is the electronics that play a major role in the high-tech industry. In the field of communications, people in the industry stated that high tariffs are likely to reduce the price competitiveness of Chinese products and affect future market sales. At the same time, the new policy will also be more sensitive to the technical interoperability of Chinese companies. In the past, investment was used in exchange for high technology. Curve Salvation's model may also be in trouble.
'This can only strengthen communication,' communications expert Xiang Ligang also told Southern Metropolis reporters. Take Huawei as an example. The UK had previously banned Huawei. However, Huawei spent only 1 billion U.S. dollars to establish a research institute in the UK. Improve mutual trust.
Produced by: Ministry of Commerce and Data: South China Reporter Bu Yuqin Cai Hui Mao Shujie