Concerns over US-China trade conflict loom large at Asia’s largest hi-tech conference
Participants at the RISE conference in Hong Kong see the trade dispute threatening growth in the global technology industry
The US-China trade dispute loomed large at the opening of the RISE technology conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as major hi-tech companies, start-ups and various industry experts discussed the latest developments in blockchain, artificial intelligence, the internet, e-commerce and other related fields.
While Hong Kong is more than 13,000 kilometres away from Washington, recent policy decisions made by the administration of US President Donald Trump have apparently hit close to home for a number of conference participants.
“We should all realise that we benefit so much from the openness of the vast technology community,” said Wayne Xu, the president of ZhongAn Technologies International Group, a unit of Hong Kong-listed ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance. “If barriers are put up today, it will destroy what we have achieved.”
Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies have also raised concerns about Chinese companies being squeezed out of crucial technologies, such as semiconductors. That recently came to the fore when ZTE Corp, China’s largest listed telecommunications equipment maker, was forced to shut down most of its operations amid a US government ban on the export of American-made chips and other components to the company, which failed to punish staff involved in selling products to North Korea and Iran.
While the ban has been temporarily lifted under the terms of ZTE’s settlement with the US government, China’s government and the nation’s prominent tech industry leaders have reiterated calls for investing in crucial technologies to help cut the country’s reliance on imported chips, software and other resources.
