Gabriel Balbo

Institute of Engineering and Agronomy

National University Arturo Jauretche (UNAJ)

Abstract

In less than fifty years, the People’s Republic of China has managed to rank among the most powerful nations in the world from a technological point of view, even reaching the cutting edge technology in sectors as relevant as telecommunications, currently having global influence with high geopolitical relevance. In that sense, China’s leadership in technologies such as 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI), in addition to its purchasing and financing capabilities, give the mainland a big chance to dispute different scenarios that until recently were reserved only for the great Western powers and their allies.

The path that the Chinese state has followed to set up its current knowledge of technology has been ideologically based on the «Four Modernizations». Its sustained growth had to do with the route map given by the successive Five-Year Plans and a deliberate action stressed by the rigorous “markets for technology” trade off that has offered to developed countries.

The turnaround in the Chinese economy promoted by Deng Xiaoping –“The Little Helmsman”- based on market oriented reforms  has allowed the country to achieve the great transformation by using some tools of the capitalist system, far from those to the dogmatic communism.

Thus, during the last years of the 20th century, China took a hit of technology transfer in exchange for opening its markets to foreign competition. This situation was exploited by Chinese industry to quickly achieve its own capabilities for innovation and technology development. Starting in 2001, China joined the WTO and has ridden the wave not only to increase its technological capability but also to become a leading competitor in high value-added manufacturing. Thanks to the use of its large domestic markets as an attractive currency of exchange.

Key Words: technology development, geopolitics of technology, telecom equipment industry, global markets