Tech Tonic, the US-China Tech Race: Spies & Lies (Part One)
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the first episode of this season’s six-part series, the FT’s Global China Editor James Kynge tracks China’s dramatic transformation from the manufacturing workshop of the world to the next global superpower. The driver of that change is technology, sparking a battle between China and the US over who will dominate. Numerous ethnic Chinese scientists working in the US have found themselves ensnared in this bitter rivalry, including US-based physics professor Xiaoxing Xi, wrongly accused of industrial espionage, amid accusations that China’s tech prowess has been built on the theft of US innovation. How deep is the rift between the two countries over tech and what does that mean for the world?
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Presented by James Kynge. Edwin Lane is senior producer. Josh Gabert-Doyon is producer. Manuela Saragosa is executive producer. Sound design is by Breen Turner, with original music from Metaphor Music. The FT's head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
News clips credits: CNBC, CGTN America, NBC
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.3 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:10.0 | Professor Sian-Sing-C, chair of the physics department at Temple University in Philadelphia, |
| 0:15.9 | had a lot to look forward to on May the 20th, 2015. |
| 0:20.1 | My elder daughter was home from college for several days and my younger daughter was 12 years old. |
| 0:28.4 | So she was in middle school. |
| 0:32.0 | His work diary that day was full of the kind of commitments he once could only have dreamt of. |
| 0:37.6 | Growing up, he'd survive China's cultural revolution, |
| 0:41.2 | moved to the United States and become a naturalized American citizen. |
| 0:45.6 | You know, I was busy just like any other days. |
| 0:48.8 | Did a lot of work on my research, my teaching, and also some |
| 0:52.8 | matters related to the promotion of a colleague that as a chair of the department, I was responsible for. |
| 1:00.8 | By any measure, the wiry, bespectacled professor C was at the top of his game |
| 1:06.4 | as an established authority on superconductors. |
| 1:10.1 | Their materials that offer little or no resistance to electricity. |
| 1:15.1 | They're used to make, for example, trains that appear to float and faster computers that |
| 1:21.2 | can store more data. On that day in May, there was a lot of interest in his research. |
| 1:27.0 | I was invited to give a public lecture at a science festival. |
| 1:31.4 | It took place at an Irish pub. |
| 1:34.4 | Professor C's wife was due to fly home to Philadelphia and he and their two daughters |
| 1:40.4 | were looking forward to seeing her. |
| 1:42.4 | She was traveling back from a conference overseas. |
... |
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