The recent Congressional hearing on TikTok underscored the powerful role that advanced technology in the hands of Big Tech companies has on our economy, national security, government, and personal well-being. With more than 100 million American users, TikTok has a degree of access and influence unachievable with any previous form of communication.
According to U.S. intelligence, the company behind TikTok, ByteDance, and through it the Chinese government, have the means to gather intelligence and conduct influence operations in the U.S.
China Makes Moves in Social Media, Big Tech
While reasonable people can disagree in regard to the advisability of banning the app in the U.S., there is no question that TikTok’s global reach, sophisticated algorithms, and growing revenues demonstrate that China can be a peer competitor to the U.S. in advanced technologies.
Should China win this competition, the result will be a new world order that maximizes the political, economic, ideological, and military power of the Chinese state. Proposals to constrain the operations and investments of preeminent U.S. technology firms could bring this result to fruition.
The competition between U.S. technology firms and their Chinese counterparts, particularly Beijing’s so-called national champions, continues to intensify. Moreover, the trends are not in our favor. A recent analysis by an Australian think tank concluded that Chinese companies were ahead of their U.S. counterparts in 37 of the 44 leading technologies of the 21st century. Even more conservative assessments acknowledge China’s current advantages in microelectronics, 5G telecommunications, and AI.
Beijing has made it explicit that its strategy is to make China dominant in the key technologies of the 21st century, including microelectronics, AI, quantum computing, networking, virtual reality, multispectral sensing, and biotechnology. To achieve this goal, the regime is designating and supporting a set of national champions, ostensibly private companies, that are monitored, supported, and even directed by the central government.
Knowledgeable observers are concerned that the United States may be on a path that will result in losing the high-tech competition with China. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence warned that the U.S. could lose the competition in AI and, as a result, our economic and military preeminence. While it is not a given that China will win this race, the Western world faces protracted competition with China in an array of technologies.
The China Challenge
The keys to winning the long-term high-tech competition with China do not rest in sanctioning Chinese companies or banning their apps. Rather, this will be achieved, first and foremost, by allowing U.S. technology companies, particularly Big Tech firms such as Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, to compete freely. Victory in the battle to develop and deploy advanced technologies also will be a function of maintaining a technology ecosystem that encourages companies big and small to take risks and innovate.
To be successful in the competition with China, U.S. tech companies will require both capability and capacity. Private companies must be able to assemble and support the critical human capital and hardware to make their desired breakthroughs. In addition, these companies must have the resources to deploy their capabilities at scale. For example, the required computational capabilities to run advanced AI apps are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Similarly, providing cloud services to meet the growing demand from both the private sector and government requires continuous investments. These major tech companies also serve as a vital source of investment for innovative startups.
As the TikTok hearing demonstrates, the U.S. is beginning to treat the competition with China in advanced technology with greater seriousness. It has banned certain products from Chinese tech companies, particularly in sensing and communications. Restrictions have been imposed on Chinese companies’ access to Western chipmaking technology. The recent CHIPS and Science Act is intended to expand U.S. research and production of microelectronics.
But even as the Biden administration and Congress act to enhance the ability of the U.S. technology sector to compete with China, they are pursuing policies and legislation that would seriously hamper the ability of U.S. firms, particularly Big Tech companies, to compete.
For several years, legislation has been proposed in Congress specifically directed at limiting the activities of the nation’s preeminent advanced technology firms. There have even been proposals to break up these firms. In addition, the Biden administration is implementing an executive order that would impose burdensome and hard-to-implement security requirements on major cloud providers.
A War on Big Tech Is a Mistake
Breaking up Big Tech companies, or even stifling their growth and innovativeness through misguided legislation and regulatory overreach, could do irreparable harm to their ability to compete against their Chinese counterparts. Imposing onerous and costly regulations on these firms threatens their ability to marshal the resources with which to continue advancing in key areas.
Big Tech firms are at the center of an ecosystem that is vital to the ability of startups to function. Congress and regulators need to appreciate how important Big Tech is to competition with China and how central winning that competition will be to the economic and military security of this country, plus the well-being and liberties of the American people.
Too often, of late, politicians and government officials, irrespective of party affiliation, have sought to use anti-competition legislation or regulation as a blunt weapon to force changes in the behavior of Big Tech companies unrelated to their business practices. Where there are specific concerns regarding issues such as privacy, data access, and content management, these should be addressed narrowly, through targeted actions.
If the U.S. is to successfully compete with China while fending off its malign behaviors and simultaneously deter aggression, it will require the resources, skills, and entrepreneurial spirit resident in the advanced technology sector overall, but in the Big Tech companies specifically.
Banning TikTok or imposing sanctions on exports of advanced computer chips to China will not win the technology competition. Only by partnering with the Big Tech companies and encouraging their efforts to achieve technological advances in critical areas can the U.S. hope to win the most consequential international competition of the 21st century.
Dr. Daniel Goure, a 1945 Contributing Editor, is Senior Vice President with the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit public-policy research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. He is involved in a wide range of issues as part of the institute’s national security program. Dr. Goure has held senior positions in both the private sector and the U.S. Government. Most recently, he was a member of the 2001 Department of Defense Transition Team. Dr. Goure spent two years in the U.S. Government as the director of the Office of Strategic Competitiveness in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He also served as a senior analyst on national security and defense issues with the Center for Naval Analyses, Science Applications International Corporation, SRS Technologies, R&D Associates, and System Planning Corporation.
