Export controls are central in economic competition between the U.S. and China. A new U.S.-led multilateral export control regime could further entrench efforts to exclude China from accessing Western technology.

U.S. and Chinese officials have grown accustomed to barbed exchanges in the public forum. It would seem that the minds of the two nations are diverging to opposing extremes. While a U.S.-China schism is undeniable, the world of academia is operating at a different wavelength than their government counterparts.

Washington wants to build a “small chip world” for itself that is decoupled from global supply chains. This is pure fantasy. The act can neither help the U.S. achieve a secure supply chain nor rejuvenate its domestic chip manufacturing sector. And it won’t slow China down either.

In the past, the U.S. dollar and Chinese yuan used to move inversely. Recently, that has not been the case. The dollar is appreciating, and so is the yuan. Are the bilateral currencies decoupling?

In 2018, Steve Bannon, then-US President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, argued that the United States needed to “decouple” from China. Since then, the term has become a fixture in discussions of Sino-American relations – to the point that some, such as former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, have warned that it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How salient is that risk today?

While a recent speech by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Chi Tai was filled with accusations and predictable slanders against China, it also reflected a somewhat more nuanced trend, showing that America is attempting to moderate relations.

As the U.S. continues its financial blockade against China, China can respond by opening up to foreign financial institutions and achieve recoupling.

Interwoven interests with the United States are a Gordian knot that cannot be cut without doing serious harm. Alarm bells are ringing in Washington.

Decoupling serves neither China nor the United States. Instead, it would impose grave economic costs on both countries at best and threatens a calamitous military clash at worst.

Innovation and further opening-up are the antidote to technological suppression by the United States. The difficulties it imposes are real, but they are temporary and surmountable. They only inspire us.