US-China tech war: America being held back by budgetary red tape, Pentagon official says

China is ‘focused on high technology to transform their economy’, says Michael Brown, director of the defence innovation unit

‘As we all know, it takes two years to plan a dollar of spending’ at the US defence department, he says

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The US should not let its budgeting process be a disadvantage in its tech race with China, Pentagon official Michael Brown says. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:00pm, 10 Mar 2021Updated: 9:00pm, 10 Mar 2021

The United States should streamline its budgeting procedures to prevent losing ground to China in the tech race, according to a senior American defence official.

A “time-consuming budgetary process” had impeded the country’s ability to innovate and keep pace with Beijing, Michael Brown, director of the defence innovation unit at the Pentagon, said at an online seminar hosted by the Hudson Institute on Friday.

“We don’t want our budgeting process to be a disadvantage for us in that tech race,” he said, adding that rivalry in the technology field was “at the heart of US-China competition”.

By comparison, the Chinese system had proven to be much more adaptable with the “powerful combination” of state-led directives and market incentives – copying Western ways of raising capital while avoiding the mistakes made by the Soviet Union during the Cold War arms race, Brown said.

“So we need to be moving at a rate of speed that makes sure we’re not getting behind because there’s a first-mover advantage for these new technologies.”

China’s strategies had contributed to its lead in areas like 5G and artificial intelligence, as well as its rapidly expanding space programmes, he said.

Beijing’s achievements amounted to a “Sputnik moment”, Brown said, referring to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1 – the world’s first artificial satellite – in 1957, which ignited American fears about the perceived technological gap between the two superpowers during the Cold War.

China is focused on high technology to transform its economy, Pentagon official Michael Brown says. Photo: William Pratt

US-China tech war: America being held back by budgetary red tape, Pentagon official says

China is ‘focused on high technology to transform their economy’, says Michael Brown, director of the defence innovation unit ‘As we all know, it takes two years to plan a dollar of spending’ at the US defence department, he says

China is ‘focused on high technology to transform their economy’, says Michael Brown, director of the defence innovation unit

‘As we all know, it takes two years to plan a dollar of spending’ at the US defence department, he says