How Sanctions are Spurring Chinese Innovation
Kyle Chan - Season 2, Episode 3
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Over the past several years, the United States has escalated its use of sanctions and export controls in the context of growing strategic competition with China. A central goal has been to contain China’s rise in high-tech industries—especially semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and clean energy—by cutting off access to advanced technology. This approach reflects a bipartisan consensus in Washington that restricting China’s access to innovation is key to preserving American technological dominance.
But there is an emerging debate about whether this approach is working as intended. Recent developments suggest that export controls and sanctions might be spurring faster innovation in China—forcing Chinese firms and the state to deepen their technological capabilities and reorganize industrial supply chains.
Kyle Chan is a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University whose work focuses on industrial policy, innovation, and green technology in China. He is the author of an excellent newsletter titled High Capacity. He also recently published an op-ed in the New York Times on US-China technological competition.
The Sanctions Age is produced by Spiritland Productions.
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