Tribune. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long maintained an acute sensitivity to foreign dependencies. The era of reform that began in 1978, focused on getting out of poverty, for a time relegated this vigilance to the background, but the insistence of propaganda on the humiliations inflicted in the 19th century.e century by the Western powers has preserved the breeding ground.
Over the course of its enrichment, China has matched its development, focused on exports and the attraction of foreign investment, with ad hoc efforts against certain dependencies. From the mid-1990s, some localized dependency reduction policies ended in stinging fiascos, for example on printed circuits. At the turn of this century, the projection of Chinese companies in the world was made on the grounds of securing supplies of raw materials. Over the next decade, authorities began decoupling Chinese data and the Internet from the rest of the world.
The policies of substitution of national companies for imports only fully reappeared in the wake of the 2009 stimulus plan. Initially confined to defense technologies, they are growing in importance and scope, along with the return of the public sphere to the economy. The China 2025 plan of 2015, and its “indications” of global market share in promising sectors is the emblem.
The coming to power in 2016 of US President Donald Trump, obsessed with the trade deficit and rising tariffs, was cause for concern in Beijing. These Chinese fears ended up focusing more on technological and financial issues.
In April 2018, the Americans banned exports to the main Chinese telecom supplier, ZTE, for failing to comply with the embargoes on North Korea and Iran. Forced to comply with American injunctions, Beijing has realized its vulnerability to American unilateralism. The similar setbacks of its other flagship of the sector, Huawei, and many companies accused of participating in its defense industry have confirmed this weakness caused by the dependence of its companies on foreign inputs. In addition, the US authorities have also reduced the access of Chinese companies to US markets and companies in many sectors deemed strategic, and urge their allies to do the same.
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