The East Asian Computer Chip War

The semiconductor industry is a vital industry for military establishments worldwide, and the control of, or loss of control of, this key industry has enormous strategic implications. This book focuses on the globalization of the strategic semiconductor industry and the security ramifications of this process. It examines in particular the migration of the Taiwanese chip industry to China as part of the globalization of production processes, and the extent to which such a globalization process poses security challenges to the United States, China and Taiwan. Transcending disciplinary boundaries between international political economy, security studies, and the history of science and technology, this multidisciplinary work provides an in-depth understanding of the globalization-security nexus, and disentangles the key policy issues connected to a potential explosive flashpoint in world politics today.

The Financial Times Business Book of the Year, this epic account of the decades-long battle to control one of the world’s most critical resources—microchip technology—with the United States and China increasingly in fierce competition is “pulse quickening…a nonfiction thriller” (The New York Times). You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America’s military superiority and economic prosperity. Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the US became dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America’s victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. Until recently, China had been catching up, aligning its chip-building ambitions with military modernization. Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War is “an essential and engrossing landmark study" (London Times).

A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems America’s security state first started to weaponize these channels after 9/11, when they seemed like necessities to combat terrorism—but now they’re a matter of course. Multinational companies like AT&T and Citicorp build hubs, which they use to make money, but which the government can also deploy as choke points. Today’s headlines about trade wars, sanctions, and technology disputes are merely tremors hinting at far greater seismic shifts beneath the surface. Slowly but surely, Washington has turned the most vital pathways of the world economy into tools of domination over foreign businesses and countries, whether they are rivals or allies, allowing the U.S. to maintain global supremacy. In the process, we have sleepwalked into a new struggle for empire. Using true stories, field-defining findings, and original reporting, Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman show how the most ordinary aspects of the post–Cold War economy have become realms of subterfuge and coercion, and what we must do to ensure that this new arms race doesn’t spiral out of control.

China has achieved remarkable, sustained economic growth under the policies of ‘reform and opening up’ put into place since the late 1970s. China’s industrial policies have nurtured a large group of firms with high profits and a high market capitalisation. However, few people in the West can name a single Chinese firm. During the modern era of capitalist globalisation firms from the high income countries have spread their business systems across the world. This has presented a profound challenge for industrial policy in developing countries, including even China, the world’s second largest economy. China is unique among large latecomer developing countries in having reached the position of being a huge, fast-growing economy, with a tremendous impact on the rest of the world, but lacking a substantial group of globally competitive firms. This volume explores this paradox. Fully understanding the industrial policy challenge that the era of capitalist globalisation has produced for China is essential for harmonious international relations.

This book is part of a series which makes available to English-speaking audiences the work of the individual Chinese economists who were the architects of China’s economic reform. The series provides an inside view of China’s economic reform, revealing the thinking of the reformers themselves, unlike many other books on China’s economic reform which are written by outside observers. Chen Xiwen (1950-) has made major contributions to economic policy making on agricultural development and the rural economy. Although born in Shanghai he was one of the young people sent down to the countryside in the late 1960s to work in a production and construction corps. He has held a number of government and academic positions, notably director of the Rural Economy Research Department of the State Council and Vice President of the Development Research Centre of the State Council. The book is published in association with China Development Research Foundation, one of the leading economic and social think tanks in China, where many of the theoretical foundations and policy details of economic reform were formulated.

This book is part of a series which makes available to English-speaking audiences the work of the individual Chinese economists who were the architects of China’s economic reform. The series provides an inside view of China’s economic reform, revealing the thinking of the reformers themselves, unlike many other books on China’s economic reform which are written by outside observers. Du Runsheng (1913-) has made major contributions to policy making on land reform, rural development and science policy. Politically active from the 1930s, when he served as a guerrilla leader fighting Japanese aggression, and in the 1940s, when he was involved in the War of Liberation (1945-49), he has held many Chinese Communist Party posts. He was secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the late 1950s, responsible for drafting the 1961 policy document which urged respect for intellectuals. Attacked and persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), he was for most of the 1980s in charge of research on rural economic reform and rural development strategies. The book is published in association with China Development Research Foundation, one of the leading economic and social think tanks in China, where many of the theoretical foundations and policy details of economic reform were formulated.

This book is part of a series which makes available to English-speaking audiences the work of the individual Chinese economists who were the architects of China’s economic reform. The series provides an inside view of China’s economic reform, revealing the thinking of the reformers themselves, unlike many other books on China’s economic reform which are written by outside observers. Lou Jiwei (1950-) has been a leading researcher on economic restructuring and macroeconomic policy in a range of Chinese policy-making organisations. He has made important contributions to policy in the fields of tax, accounting, finance and banking. In the 1990s a vice minister of finance, and from 2007 deputy secretary-general of the State Council, he is also at present head of China’s sovereign wealth fund. The book is published in association with China Development Research Foundation, one of the leading economic and social think tanks in China, where many of the theoretical foundations and policy details of economic reform were formulated.

This book is part of a series which makes available to English-speaking audiences the work of the individual Chinese economists who were the architects of China’s economic reform. The series provides an inside view of China’s economic reform, revealing the thinking of the reformers themselves, unlike many other books on China’s economic reform which are written by outside observers. Ma Hong (1920-2007) was one of the leading advocates for China’s market-oriented reforms, one of the earliest scholars to adopt the concept of "a socialist market economy". Politically active from the 1930s, when he campaigned against the Japanese occupation, he held many important posts, notably President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in the 1980s. He was particularly influential in the field of industrial economics, putting to use his own experiences of managing industrial enterprises, and a strong advocate of the need for China’s economic development to be stable. The book is published in association with China Development Research Foundation, one of the leading economic and social think tanks in China, where many of the theoretical foundations and policy details of economic reform were formulated.