Palantir CTO: U.S. Must End Economic Dependency on China
According to Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer at Palantir, the United States must recognize and terminate its economic dependency on China. In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, he stated that the two countries are currently engaging in an economic war. Business leaders in private enterprise, according to him, do not have the courage to face this reality and cling instead to the fiction of China's "peaceful rise."
A Clash of Perspectives: Sankar vs. Huang
Sankar's article specifically references the recent observations by Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, who has described being a 'China hawk' as a "badge of shame" and who perceives a collaborative approach as feasible. In stark opposition to this view, Sankar stated,
"The first step to ending our dependence on China is admitting we have a problem."
He further continued,
"We can continue to be useful idiots, decrying ‘China hawks’ who point out that we’re funding our own demise. Or we can wake up to the reality that we’re already in an economic war."
Though the term "useful idiot" was not expressly hurled in Huang's direction, Sankar's comments implicitly attach the former to the latter's remarks.
The Debate Over Chip Exports and Global Standards
The crux of the argument highlights different strategies for maintaining U.S. technological leadership. Jensen Huang has consistently opposed strict export controls on high-powered chips, arguing that such measures could backfire by motivating Chinese companies like Huawei to develop their own technologies and define global standards. He believes that making American technology widely available in China ensures it becomes the foundation of global AI.
Sankar's counterargument is that China uses foreign companies to advance its goals only until it can produce a domestic alternative. That's when he expects Chinese companies to saturate the market with low-priced alternatives while Beijing restricts market access for the original foreign companies.
American Companies' Complicit Support for China's Rise
Sankar does not blame only China; pointing to some of the major American companies as complicit in China's rise. According to him, firms such as Apple, Tesla, and Intel invested heavily, transferring capital, technology, and expertise that helped build China into a global manufacturing superpower with an unrivaled supply chain.
He maintains that the U.S. must rebuild its industrial base rather than continue granting China this pathway to modernity. This does not mean completely stopping trade but establishing alternate markets and supply chains so that the U.S. will not be forced to bend to Beijing's will.
A Call to Action
Without immediate actions, matters will become worse, warns the Palantir CTO. Citing Upton Sinclair to explain some of the business leaders' hesitance in admitting the problems, he remarked,
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
Sankar concluded that while the journey toward reducing dependence and rebuilding the domestic industry would be tough, especially for a public used to low-priced goods, doing so is an obligatory condition for the U.S. to ensure its sovereignty.
