All right, let's get over to our next guest, because we're being told that the US is exploring the possibility of new export controls that would limit China's access to some of the most powerful emerging computing technologies. Were joined them by Jordan Strauss, Kroll Managing Director and Kroll Institute Fellow. Jordan, thank you for joining us. Let's just look at what
is perhaps the bigger picture here. This is about not just semiconductors, which is a very very wide subject, but also in technologies to do with AI and quantum computing. Is it now really explicit that the wine House is doubling down in its efforts to contain China. Hey, risch It's nice to spend the morning with Hugh and Bloomberg. Absolutely clear. We've seen that happen over the past few weeks where the Biden administration has finally settled on and
really doubled down on a very aggressive strategy. You saw that two weeks ago with the release of the new National Security Strategy, which identifies China as primary geopolitical competitor in the world with the United States, with the change in UM verification for certain Chinese companies that are engaged in advanced semiconductor research, and these rumors are are certainly
fitting with all of that. You know, it's clear that, you know, the future of national security and national prosperity as much as it's been energy for the last hundred years, is high technology, is quantum AI and other chip enabled stuff. So you know, the Biden administration is recognizing that the chips are the new oil, and they're doing everything they can to try to create a competitive advantage for America. So in terms of timing, Jordan, do you think that
the horse has left the barn so to speak? I mean, is there still time to contain China in this in this way or have they already or the country at large as it kind of advanced its own ambition to the extent that they have done work in quantum computing and AI. So there's been a lot of very healthy competition between the current great powers in this space and that will continue. You know, I think that the administration's actions and the actions that other Western governments are considering um.
You know, in the United States, the passage of the so called Chips act Um and the Western equivalents of that that are likely about to pass in a few European countries have made clear that everybody is trying to bring this stuff closer to their shores to build a domestic ability to conduct R and D and to conduct fabrication of advanced technologies. I would say, by the way, that that competition is good, and not just good long term for companies that are engaged in this, but good
for progress and innovation. On the US China front, there's been so much tension for the last twenty years that it I think short of a real diplomatic or scientific breakthrough, Um, you know, the next the next year or two are probably gonna be fairly difficult to navigate. UM. Jordan Mike colleague in the studios, Brian Kurtz, and he's gonna doozy if a question it's that would it make a difference if China were a free country. I'm going on to say,
is it competition or is it politics? Um? So great, great question, Brian. The you know, this is about the most critical developing technologies in the national security space. So these things can be used for everything from automated vehicles, to automated drones, to missiles and to h very very
advanced cybersecurity challenges, particularly with cryptography. I think that the states, regardless of their way of government, are competing as as private actors are, and they're competing with all of their might. So we have Anthony blink In today, Secretary of State, picking up on what I thought was kind of an obvious conclusion based on the speech the other night from President Chi that Taiwan has created a much faster timeline. Are I'm sorry, Mainland China has created a much faster
timeline for its seizure of Taiwan. Is this How does this enter into the conversation around advanced technologies? So Taiwan is the source of depending on who you talked to, between of the market to include fabrication for certain kinds of next generation semiconductor technologies, you know, particularly the kinds of things that you need to do really really powerful
computational exercises. So there's a regional security issue, and then there's also kind of a um a concentration of knowledge there as far as the US and the West are concerned. In addition to the other strategic priorities to keeping Taiwan free UM, the loss of Taiwan would also represent you know, perhaps not a crippling but a very serious setback in terms of access to not just the kinds of semiconductors that we need to power the technology today, but also
the problems of the future. And I know it by the way that I suspect that's one of the reasons that the US Chips Act received such why bipartisan support, that there was an overwhelming recognition that the US and the West dependence on on Asia and particularly on Taiwan for advanced technology development was near total. Very interesting times, great conversation, Jordan, Thank you so much for being with us.
Jordan Strauss there He is managing director at Kroll. He is also a Kroll Institute Fellow