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Working Paper

[PDI Working Paper No.4] US-China Strategic Competition under the Biden administration and South Korea’s response

2021.01.27

Seo Woo Jeong (Master’s student in Political Science and International Relations, Korea University)

 

  • This paper was presented at Jiam Workshop #3.

Abstract 

Competition over technology hegemony is one of the major aspects of the strategic rivalry between the US and China. The Trump administration has defined China’s willingness to innovate in the technological field as economic aggression that threatened US economic interests and security and has tried to limit it through sanctions against China. So, how will the US-China technology strategic competition unfold under the Biden administration? In this paper, we will argue that even though there is a possibility for a short-term compromise, which we will analyze through three scenarios, a prolonged competition for technological hegemony is inevitable considering the technological gap between the US and China and the US domestic political scene. In addition, if the US global multilateral strategy is linked to the regional multilateral one, even if an agreement is reached in the short term, the overall US-China relationship will deteriorate as the competition in the technological field intensifies. South Korea should think of a strategy to minimize damage amid the prolonged US-China technological hegemony conflict by investing in the enhancement of domestic technological innovation capabilities and playing an active role in the settlement of international rules and standards related to multilateral cooperation and technological development.