Since 2017, China has ranked second in the number of patent registrations worldwide, ahead of Japan in that position and only behind the United States, with the firm Huawei Technologies occupying that position at the company level. With a growth in patent registration of 13.4 in 2017 and 9.1 in 2018, it is very likely that the Asian giant can reach first place in a couple of years.
One of the main lines of action in the China-US trade war is the technology and information sector, where concern has spread to other governments of the “Five Eyes” – Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand. and United Kingdom – in the future implementation of 5G technology.
Semiconductors being the cornerstone on which information age technology rests, China has set itself within the ambitious objective “Made in China 2025” a production that reaches USD 305 billion, which would represent 80% of domestic demand. In 2019, China is dependent on importing a large number of semiconductors, and the country’s government is willing to reverse the situation.
Semiconductors are used in electronic applications, especially for the manufacture of components such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits. They are also used as accessories or complements to optical sensors, such as solid-state lasers, and some power devices for electrical power transmission systems. Currently, this type of element is being used for technological developments in the fields of telecommunications, control systems and signal processing, both in domestic and industrial applications.
In the summer of 2018, the United States Government presented a new Defense law, which increased the budget allocated to security to a record figure of 715,000 million dollars (about 635,000 million euros) increasing the powers of the Government and Congress to review and block any type of foreign investment in its economy under the argument of a threat to national security. Although the law does not mention any specific country, experts agree that the recipient of such a reform is none other than China.
That is, in reality, the real war that hides the trade war between these two giants. At stake are the technological mastery of the future and the control of the high speed that is to come: 5G. This technology, which has a potential launch year of 2020, has in its field of action such futuristic but real issues such as self-driving vehicles, virtual reality, smart cities and robots that work in a network
The number of users of 5G networks in China will reach 460 million in 2025, surpassing the number of users in Europe and North America combined, making the Asian country the largest market for this new technology, according to the report. the Association of GSM mobile operators. It is expected that the amount of investments in the development of 5G networks will reach around 58,000 million dollars in 2019 and 2020 and in that period
The two main economic powers in the world, the United States and China, have evolved their trade war into a war that is also technological.