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Joining us now as we widen the lens on this whole story involving Nvidia export controls and on a greater scale US China relations, is Nicholas Burns, the former US Ambassador to China and the Biden administration professor at Harvard's Belfast Center. Mister ambassador, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. It's great to have you. It seems all roads lead to China, or we're talking about in Nvidia or new
tariffs on India. So let's start where we're already talking, and that's export controls in this idea of Nvidia opening once again a new market in China. There's even reporting today that in Nvidia is talking about a Blackwell chip that might be available scaled down version for the China market. But there's still no deal and from what we understand, no licenses to begin reselling these AI chips in China. Will it happen?
This is going to be a consequential decision for the Trump administration. US policy for several years now, for three years, has been to deny to China those dual use exports like advanced chips for Ai purposes that might then help the People's Liberation Army to outcompete the United States military in this ferocious competition for military technology power that's underway
and that will in many ways define the relationship. And you saw when President Trump permitted the sale of the Navidia and twenty chip, the Chinese government turned around and said that they had problems even they might not give authority to Chinese companies to purchase the chips because they suspected these chips could be problematic for them. And so now you have a second decision coming up by the
Trump administration. I certainly hope that the Trump administration will be as tough minded as President Biden was deny this technology to China, because it's far more important that the United States weakened the People's Liberation Army and not strengthen it by allowing the sale of an advanced chip.
Well, you know, if you talk to Jensen Wong about that, he would tell you that that only strengthens Huawei and in fact strengthens China's hand to sell this type of technology if it were to catch up with the United States to other countries. Do you believe that we're mortgaging our national security by selling this technology.
Oh, I believe that there'd be a great injury to our national security if we sold this technology. We certainly realize that in twenty twenty two, when the Biden administration could in place these stringent export controls, we understood this would be problematic for those American ship producers exporting to China. But there's something more important at stake here, the national security of the United States, the balance of military power
between China and the United States. And while certainly the Chinese have gone a long way towards innovating now around these export controls, we were never under any illusion they would stop progress technological progress in China, but we would delay progress, and that has happened. So I think President Biden's initial decision nearly three years ago now was correct, and it's very important the Trump administration hold the line.
I think you'll hear that from many members of Congress in both political parties.
By the way, yeah, you'll hear from them right here on this program. I'm sure. As we consider what some would describe as an economic cold war here, or at least a trade war with China, the prospects of pushing India closer to China has been on the table this week with now a fifty percent tariff that the US has put on India. Half of that was added as punishment for India buying Russian oil. Ambassador I talked about this last evening with Peter Navarro, the White House Senior
Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing. He made a lot of news not only here but in Delhi today with his answer what he said about India's Prime Minige Modi and its culpability regarding Russia's war in Ukraine.
Let's listen, everybody in America loses because of what India's doing. The consumers and businesses and everything lose, and workers lose because India's high tariffs costs as jobs and factories in income and higher wages. And then the taxpayers lose because we got a fun Mody's war.
Mody's War was the headline on the front page of every major newspaper this morning in India, and it led all of their newscasts. When he said that last evening, it was considered an insults and framed to be inaccurate. What do you make of this rhetoric coming from the White House.
I think it's unfortunate. I also think it just doesn't make a lot of sense. If you look at the history of the US India relationship, you know, we have this historic competition with China underway really for which of US is going to be the strongest country in the Indo Pacific and in the world in the future. India has been now for twenty five years, one of the
key strategic partners of the United States. Every American president, starting with President Bill Clinton, Democrat and Republican, has believed, and this includes President Trump in his first term, that we've got to get along with India, We've got to strengthen our military partnership because that strengthens our ability to leverage China and to make sure that China is hemmed in in its territorial ambitions on the India China border, in the Himalayas, but also in places like the South
and East China Sea. So I understand that the Trump administration believes in this policy of high terraffts. But when you exact these high terriffs on India, Japan, South Korea, the European Union, you're weakening our natural coalition of countries that want to be with us in terms of going up against the Chinese and limiting their power. But it's difficult to do when you've got fifty percent American terrorists on Indian products coming into the United States. Every country
has domestic politics, every leader just like that. As a Trump today politics.
It's already happening. We're reporting that in March Beijing began quiet outreach to India. President she wrote a letter to test the waters on improving ties. I have less than a minute, and I don't want to cut you off, ambassador, but where does this end with this letter?
Well, you know there's going to be an historic meeting between President Hijin Ping and Prime Minister Modi on September third in Beijing. And this is this is a step backwards, a major step backwards for the United States, because we had since the end of the nineties, long time ago, we've established this true partnership with India, and now it's at risk because of this misguided terrorists pop tariff policy by the Trump administration.
There you have it from Nicholas Burns, the former US ambassador to China and the Biden administration ambassador. Thank you for your insights.