Chinese and U.S. flags fly near the Bund before a U.S. trade delegation meets with a Chinese trade delegation in Shanghai, China, July 30, 2019.
Ally Song | Reuters
SUZHOU, China – The United States is working hard to ensure American technology is used in Asia as China rushes to develop cheaper alternatives, a senior State Department official told CNBC.
“We are very active in promoting U.S. AI options and solutions,” Casey K. Mace, a senior APEC economic policy official, told CNBC on Friday on the sidelines of the APEC trade ministers’ meeting in Suzhou, a week after U.S. President Donald Trump visited the country with a number of technology CEOs.
As the two countries compete to develop technology, the United States has restricted China’s access to advanced American chips. The Chinese government has already banned Google and Facebook in mainland China.
Mace said the US tech company will hold a workshop at APEC’s “Digital Week” in Chengdu in July. Although China is the host of the event, “it is an opportunity to engage with all 21 (APEC) countries,” he added.
Mace did not name the specific U.S. companies participating, but pushed back when asked whether the U.S. was insisting on “best-in-class” American technology rather than Chinese alternatives.
He said he has been meeting with American tech companies based in China and hopes to gain greater access to the Chinese market.
China is hosting this year’s APEC trade ministers’ meeting, scheduled to conclude in November in the technology hub of Shenzhen.
Mace said working-level talks accompanying the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in China this month focused on advancing U.S. AI in food traceability, genome sequencing and biotechnology.
He said the tone was “positive” and contributed to the “very successful meeting between President Trump and President Xi” in Beijing last week.
After high-level engagement, the two countries have agreed to start talks on the safe development of AI, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Tuesday. It is unclear when and how such negotiations will begin.
“There is pressure to distribute American computing around the world,” Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told CNBC last week.
“The Trump administration is right to advocate for this and try to do this,” he said. “But you’re going to be competing with Chinese hyperscalers and Chinese AI labs that are trying to do exactly the same thing.”
Fedasiuk added that he is closely monitoring the coordination between the US and Chinese sides to screen vendors of DNA synthesis services to prevent the production of new pandemics.
