China’s rapid GDP growth and the widening trade deficit with the United States have raised concerns about China’s economic growth. In 2010, Edward Steinfeld, then professor of MIT, argued that China’s rise poses no threat to the United States and advanced Western countries as it plays the games under the rules made by the United States. But there have also been warnings that China’s technological upgrade is no longer compatible with the U.S.-led globalization. US officials criticize “Made in China 2025” as “crimes, not technology upgrading,” which aim to raise the country’s self-sufficiency in core technologies, parts, and materials in the high-tech industry to 40 percent by 2020 and 70 percent by 2025. This paper discusses whether strategic competition between the US and China poses a threat to the U.S.-led world order with the case studies in the field of AI and 5G, and looks at how strategic competition between the US and China, the main actors of the international order, is making any interaction with existing globalization. Advances in technologies such as 5G and AI are promoting a cross-border movement of services, which can shock the United States and China in different ways. In the case of the US, the US has begun to tighten its control over foreign immigration to protect manufacturing sectors in the US after Trump’s presidency. If the border movement of services becomes more active, services could be outsourced more broadly without the physical flow of immigrants, and it will have a big impact on the local labor market. In China’s case, despite its competitiveness in AI and 5G technologies that promote cross-border movement of information and services, it is likely to be used to maintain the Communist Party’s authoritarian rule more efficiently than to encourage free movement of information and services. There is also a strong trend to establish a mutually exclusive system, as the US administration encourages allies to refrain from using Huawei networking equipment, and China takes action against them. However, there is also the possibility of establishing a multipolar order where mutual competition and cooperation coexist, unlike the Cold War era.
