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Seriously...

The New Tech Cold War

Seriously...

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.1885 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gordon Corera asks if the West is losing the technological race with China. Why did the decision to let the Chinese company Huawei build the UK’s 5G telecoms network turn into one of the most difficult and consequential national security decisions of recent times? A decision which risks undermining the normally close special relationship between the US and UK? The answer is because it cuts to the heart of the greatest fear in Washington – that China is already ahead in the global competition to develop the most advanced technology. Some people ask how we have got to a position where the West needs to even consider using Chinese tech. The answer may be because they failed to think strategically about protecting or nurturing their own technology industry over the last two decades. A free-market system has faced off against a Chinese model in which there is a clear, long-term industrial strategy to dominate certain sectors of technology, including telecoms, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. This is a rare issue where the US national security community – the so-called ‘Deep State’ – is in close alignment with President Trump. Now the US and UK, among others, are scrambling to try to develop strategies to respond and to avoid dependence on China. But – asks BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera – is it already too late?

Producer: Ben Crighton

Transcript

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0:00.0

This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.

0:05.0

The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.

0:09.0

And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.

0:12.0

The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.

0:12.5

The IRA inmates who found a way.

0:14.5

I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path

0:19.5

through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.

0:25.0

The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.

0:28.5

Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.

0:35.0

BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:39.0

Hi, I'm Riana Dylan and and this is seriously no matter where you are get ready for a listening delight from BBC radio for

1:06.9

The ethical scientific achievement by Soviet Russia in beating the United States of America in the race to launch the first man-made moon has all humanity staring heavenward. This was the moment America realized it was losing that its lead was slipping away.

1:10.9

Scientifically, militarily, politically, these track away.

1:13.0

Scientifically, militarily, politically.

1:14.0

These tracking antenna by the knowledge they will gather from the speeding orb

1:18.0

may well affect mankind as nothing before.

1:21.0

May mark a moment in history. The year was 1957 and the Soviet Union had just won

1:27.2

the race to space with the launch of Sputnik. It showed America's adversary was ahead in technology and it changed the course of the Cold War.

1:37.0

They tell us the world may never be the same again.

1:41.0

But is it deja vu for America and the West, this time not with the Soviet Union, but with China?

1:48.0

We have to be very careful, national security,

1:53.0

Huawei national security.

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