By Jerome A. Cohen
International attention concerning China has recently been focused on the Communist Party Congress and the prospects for war over Taiwan. Insufficient attention has been paid to the extraordinary microchip measures adopted by the US Government shortly before the Party Congress. Their implementation and impact, which gives new meaning to ”containment”, requires the most careful continuing assessment.
On the one hand, I understand and support the motivation that inspires these measures. On the other hand, they may well increase the likelihood of not only a tech war but a hot war. They uncomfortably remind me of the measures that the USG belatedly adopted before Pearl Harbor in order to cease our contributions to Japan’s war potential. That understandable action reportedly led Japan’s militaristic dictatorship to conclude that war with the US was inevitable. The US and the PRC should not replay this situation but should undertake the most serious negotiations to chart a better future.