Navigating the U.S.-China Technology Competition

Amidst escalating global tensions, the United States and China find themselves increasingly at odds, with technology emerging as a pivotal point of contention. The semiconductor industry has become a crucial arena for this competition, impacting national security for both nations and other key players like Japan. As the global race for semiconductor dominance accelerates, both the U.S. and Japan are taking significant measures to boost their semiconductor sectors. This includes the government-backed Japan Investment Corporation’s recent bid to acquire chip material leader JSR, and Japan’s infusion of an additional $2 billion into Japanese chip venture Rapidus to provide further support. What is the significance of semiconductors for the United States and other nations, and how is the current technology dispute playing out? What is Japan’s semiconductor strategy? In this program, speakers provide their insights into the technological rivalry between the U.S. and China in the semiconductor sphere, examine Japan’s role and its geopolitical implications, and explore the future of U.S.-China technology relations.

Speakers
Emily Benson, Director, Project on Trade and Technology and Senior Fellow, Scholl Chair in International Business, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Chris Miller, Associate Professor, International History, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology
Kazuto Suzuki, Professor, Science and Technology Policy, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo 

Moderator
Joshua W. Walker, Ph.D., President & CEO, Japan Society

Agenda
6:30 – 7:30 pm: Discussion and Q&A
7:30 – 8 pm: Reception

Program Details
This is a paid event with advance registration required. A designated number of tickets are available for free to our corporate members. (Corporate member code is required to register for the event.) Please note that seating is limited and on a first come, first served basis.

About the Speakers

Emily Benson is Director of Project on Trade and Technology, and Senior Fellow of Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she focuses on trade, investment and technology issues primarily in the transatlantic context. Prior to joining CSIS, she managed transatlantic legislative relations at a European foundation, focusing on trade relations and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. She also worked to combat money laundering via the illicit flow of art from conflict zones and spent several years at an international law firm focused on sanctions and export controls. During graduate school, Benson spent a summer in the trade section at the EU Delegation to the United States, working on digital regulation and trade remedies. Her commentary and research have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and Politico, and she is regularly quoted in domestic and international news outlets. She received her joint BA in international affairs and political science from the University of Colorado and her MA in political science from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Fluent in French, Benson has lived abroad in France, Indonesia and Switzerland.

Chris Miller is Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, international affairs and Russia. He is the author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip. He is the author of three other books on Russia, including Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia; We Shall Be Masters: Russia’s Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin; and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR. He has previously served as the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, a lecturer at the New Economic School in Moscow, a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research associate at the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Transatlantic Academy. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his BA in history from Harvard University. For more information, see www.christophermiller.net.

Kazuto Suzuki is Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at International House of Japan. He graduated from the Department of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University, and received his Ph.D. from Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, England. He has worked in the Fondation pour la recherche stratégique in Paris, France as assistant researcher, was Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba from 2000 to 2008, and served as Professor of International Politics at Hokkaido University until 2020. He served as an expert in the Panel of Experts for the Iranian Sanction Committee under the United Nations Security Council from 2013 to July 2015. He currently serves on many advisory committees of the government of Japan, among these the National Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, the Government of Japan, and the President of Japan Association of International Security and Trade. His research focuses on the conjunction of science/technology and international relations; subjects including space policy, non-proliferation, export control, and sanctions. His recent work includes Space and International Politics (2011, in Japanese, awarded Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities), Policy Logics and Institutions of European Space Collaboration (2003) and many others.

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Business & Policy programs are generously supported by Japan Society Global Leaders & Corporate Partners.

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Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.