Moves to curb technology trade with China are limited, common-sense efforts to avoid strengthening a military rival, the top US diplomat in Beijing said.
“We’re not looking at a separation of these two economies, but there are areas where we have taken — and will continue to take — measures that would protect our national security interests,” Ambassador Nicholas Burns said in an on-line talk from China with the Stimson Center in Washington. He cited as an example the October curb on exports of semiconductors.
“It could strengthen the military and intelligence communities of China, and there’s no reason in the world why the United States would want to do that, given the fact that we’re in a major competition with China,” he added.
The ambassador’s comments reinforced the message from senior US officials in recent weeks that the Biden administration seeks to “de-risk” but not “decouple” from the world’s second-largest economy.
Burns said most US businesses want to stay in China but are delaying investments until they can determine whether Beijing’s more open outlook after the easing of the country’s harsh “Zero Covid” restrictions would last.
Burns said the US has been clear with American businesses in China about regulations limiting trade in certain areas, and that there isn’t confusion.
“Our investment in our two-way trade relationship is increasing, not decreasing,” Burns said. “But there are certain areas in these advanced technology fields where we’re going to be putting up, we’ve already announced, some restrictive measures, because that’s clearly in the national security interest in the United States.”