U.S.’s intensive moves directed against China last week have palpably sped up sanctions that facilitate its all-round disengagement from China. The closest Sino-U.S. interrelations are trade and interflow of technologies. The U.S. has now taken the lead in severing the ties of technologies exchange with China. With trade decoupling in the pipe line, the last dissociation of the former from the latter would probably lie in the financial realm.

The major part of the bilateral tech exchange relations is China learning the most advanced sci-tech know-how from the U.S.. Recently, the U.S. has started to stringently vet students from China, ban them from gaining sensitive knowledge, arrest academics on the name list of “China’s Thousand Talents” recruitment plan, embargo Chinese universities in relation to military academies, and apprehend experts and scholars who rob the U.S. of technologies. On August 28, Hu Haizhou, a researcher at the University of Virginia from the military of the Chinese Communist Party, was arrested when boarding a plane heading over China. The FBI pointed out that he tried to run off to China with advanced computer source codes applicable to underwater robots and aircraft engines pilfered from U.S. universities.

The U.S. has also extended the scope of embargo on high-tech products. On August 28, U.S. Department of Defense made public the second batch of “communist Chinese military companies” that directly or indirectly operate in the U.S., setting the stage for imposing sanctions on them. In fact, Chinese telecommunication enterprises and high-end sci-tech research institutes like nuclear weapons, and aviation and aerospace research centers have been the first ones embargoed and besieged by the U.S..

On Aug 26, the official website of U.S. Department of Commerce issued a statement including 24 Chinese enterprises on the sanctions list for the reason that they take “part in militarizing the South China Sea”.

Not being an autarky, China is dependent on three categories of buy-in: annual import of 100 million tons of foods, high-tech chips worth USD 300 billion and huge amount of crude oil and natural gas. The most vital ones are foods and high-tech products. Previously, China was forced by Trump to buy foods from the U.S., which was used by the former as a bargaining chip. China has since been adjusting the amount of foods imported from the U.S. from time to time. After China and the U.S. fell out with one another, not least amidst the pandemic, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a warning that a critical worldwide shortage of foods is possible. Food exporting countries like Canada and Southeast Asian nations have also signalled that their own needs for foods are prioritized, and export of foods would be restricted. The bottom dropping out of the foods market is the last thing Trump is concerned about. On the contrary, what will worry China most in the days ahead is: When China wants to buy foods from the U.S., the latter declines the call.

Food shortage starves humans and livestock; ban on high-tech products and know-how kicks a lot of Chinese enterprises out of business. 31 years ago, the U.S. interdicted export of weapons and high-tech knowledge to China from around the world, during which only Israel and Japan did not strictly abide by the sanctions. What deserves to be taken attention is U.S. State Secretary Pompeo visited Israel in May and August this year, likely with intent to close the backdoor of exporting advanced and military technologies to China.

According to Taiwan media coverage, Chinese military aircraft and fishing boats neared the Diaoyu Islands last year, compelling Japanese jet fighters to be out on duty 900 times. What’s more, the Olympic Games having been postponed by the spread of the COVID-19 made the Japanese government and populace riled at Shinzo Abe, who had been trying to maintain good Sino-Japanese relations. With support for him in polls dropping to record lows, he had no choice but to resign last week. Under this situation, it is difficult for his successor to conserve a friendly relationship with China. Worse still, Japan is bound to join the Five Eyes as the sixth eyeball. As such, this outlet to export high-end technologies to China is also blocked up.

Now, with Hong Kong being on a par with any other city on the Mainland in the eye of the U.S., custom duties levied by the U.S. on importation of products from Hong Kong are the same as those on merchandise from mainland China, and Hong Kong-made products have to be labelled “made in China”. The most deadly measure is: The U.S. will no longer export high-tech products for military and civil use to Hong Kong. All three conduits are clogged. China has been U.S. number one enemy for a long time—70% of Americans hold a negative attitude towards China; sanctions against China were passed unanimously at both U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Even if Henry Kissinger, “an old friend of Chinese people”, were to be elected president of the U.S., he wouldn’t be able to turn the tide.

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