The Role of Technology in Orienting U.S. Foreign Relations: U.S.-Chinese Technological Competition between Trade War and Global Dominance

Abstract

By the turn of the century, the impacts of technology on international affairs and foreign policy, especially those of manufacturing technologies, are pervasive through transforming power among nations. Correspondingly, as for the United States, technological supremacy has always been a priority in conducting both homeland and foreign policies to preserve its status as the sole superpower. However, the use of this tool has become more complicated in the face of growing nations such as China. The present research attempts to investigate the role played by high technology in shaping the U.S. foreign relations towards attaining its national interests. In connection with the U.S-China relations, the substantial development of China's technological competency, notably in wireless networking (5G), has entirely shifted their relations to open geopolitical conflict. This study sheds light on the technological race as a new dimension of U.S. foreign affairs to determine whether this struggle is a trade war or a rivalry towards global dominance. To fulfil these objectives, a combination of the descriptive-analytical method and case study approach is used, which includes some numerical data converted into graphs to express the phenomenon under investigation by both quantitatively and qualitatively. Such methods are adopted to provide rounded, detailed illustrations of the factors that affect U.S. foreign relations. The results show that the technological advancement is a pivotal instrument in maintaining the U.S. global hegemony and emerging China as an independent technology polar puts the American domination in critical condition. The study concludes that the U.S. government uses political, economic, and diplomatic measures against Chinese firms such as Huawei to protect its technological superiority.