When the Biden Administration reversed course on our domestic energy production two years ago, they hurt more than just our energy independence. They handed a key strategic advantage to hostile, oil-producing powers: “a gift to dictators,” as The Wall Street Journal described it in June 2021.
The gift of increased oil revenue greased the wheels of Russia’s tanks as they rolled into Ukraine. But while Democrats obviously missed the boat on that one and left us at a strategic disadvantage, they seem wise enough not to let the same happen with China.
China is much more powerful, more ambitious, and more complicated than Russia. China is the world’s second-largest economy; Russia is an 11 time zone-long gas station with a flag. Exercising soft, economic power to curtail Chinese aggression is a must – but doing so will be difficult given that our economies are so intertwined.
Luckily, competition with our biggest adversary is one area that seems to be generating bipartisanship at an extremely divisive time in the US. Both parties agree that China is an existential threat to the US – both from an economic and national security perspective.
This month, Sen. Chuck Schumer and his Senate Democrats launched a new legislative effort to expand upon the Chips and Science Act and broaden efforts to compete with China. Meanwhile on the other side of Capitol Hill, Republicans in the House have created a Select Committee on the CCP.
One key focus of the act is the limitation of US technology and capital from going to Chinese companies. As negotiations begin to take place, it is vital for the Administration and Congressional leaders to take a hard look at the technology behind semiconductors that are the most essential components of modern-day (and future generations) electronics and military capabilities. Strictly looking at where the chips will be manufactured will not be enough to improve our position in the global market.
While the Chips and Science Act is primarily focused on manufacturing, it is also worth considering Beijing’s push towards chip development under the aegis of RISC-V as a workaround to greater restrictions on commercial technology.
Currently serving as an alternative to licensed and protected Western technology, RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. The RISC-V group includes more than 3,100 members across 70 countries. Although they insist on their about page that “RISC-V does not take a political position on behalf of any geography,” China has increased investment in RISC-V due to recent export restrictions and their growing desire for economic independence.
For example, when the RISC-V Foundation was created to shepherd the technology, two Chinese companies were on the board; Chinese companies now comprise more than 50% of the seats in the top membership category, giving them, and by extension the CCP outsized influence on the technology.
This should sound the alarms for US policymakers and be addressed in any comprehensive economic package designed to compete with Beijing. While RISC-V is inherently open source, China is increasing efforts to influence its decision making and utilization across industry.
The RISC-V Foundation most recently moved its headquarters to Switzerland because, according to chief executive Calista Redmond, “foreign members of the foundation have said they’d be ‘more comfortable’ if the foundation was not incorporated in the US.” The foundation includes many Chinese companies currently using it to create chips for everything from cell phones to electric vehicles. For example, China’s StarFive began offering two RISC-V implementations in March – one for big data applications and the other for computational storage. The broader national security issues of U.S. support for open source hardware were laid out well in this article from the Special Competitive Studies Project.
The geopolitical impact of semiconductor technology and manufacturing at home and abroad is clear. China knows that this could be the key to surpassing the US as the global economic leader, which is why they’ve increased attention and investment in RISC-V. While the US has taken steps to gain back part of its market share in overall chip production, much more needs to be done.
Thankfully, Democrats seem to realize this – at least better than they realized the connection between oil and Russia. But Republicans can’t let this opportunity slip by them. With an election on the horizon, Republicans have the chance to take the lead to show they’re the party that most aggressively addressed the existential threat from Beijing. They need to remain tough on China and work with colleagues on legislation to improve our economic position and protect our national security.
We can’t shrug our shoulders at the future of RISC-V and open-source technology as a part of these efforts. Doing so would be yet another gift to dictators.