The US-China technology war made a compelling case for why the decentralization issue shouldn’t take a back seat when an impending war could divide the world and disconnect different races due to ideologies and governments.
Reportedly, the Chinese jets were seen across the unofficial line that separates the Taiwan Strait from the Chinese zone, at 9 am on Monday, just an hour before the US health official Alex Azar was scheduled to meet Taiwan’s regional leader, Tsai Ing-wen. The aircraft was then driven away promptly by Taiwanese tracker missiles, said the official statement.
US-China relations growing fragile by the day
The move comes after China threatened to impose sanctions on 11 VIPs from the US, including the health official who paid a visit to the democratic island. A Taiwanese official called this move as “extremely risky,” considering that the Chinese jets were hovering well within the firing range of Taiwanese missiles and that the move was made to intimidate the government.
However, the US diplomat, who was seemingly undeterred by these threats, confirmed that the Taiwanese government has the full support of the Trump administration and will back its independence-leaning administration. Azar also supports Taiwan’s inclination toward becoming an active member of the World Health Assembly (WHA), a decision that has been slammed by the Chinese government over the years since it considers it a Chinese-controlled province.
A political puppetry
And while Beijing disapproves of the US-Taiwan exchanges, a Taiwanese regulator from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Wang Ting-yu, said in response to Beijing’s action that it was about time Taiwan re-instill its independence. China’s repeated intervention in Taiwan’s relations with the world has triggered tensions and fuel instability in the region. It is time we question China’s arm-twisting methods, he said.
However, a Chinese state-run news media outlet wrote in a report that Taiwan is merely a pawn in the game of power politics, and it appears that DPP doesn’t mind acting like one for the sake of better relations with the US. The US-China trade war will have severe collateral damage, and Taiwan could very well be one of them if it continues to go down this road, it said.
Decentralization issue to take the lead
It is quite clear that the ongoing political crisis between the US and China is ultimately a result of the centralization of power. In centralization, any institution, entity, or government becomes inevitably stronger when their influence over the public increases. If governments can control all forms of media, how else can people connect? It’s through decentralized communication platforms. Only blockchain provides that.
Naturally, the governments across the globe deliberately choose to cold-shoulder the decentralization issue as they lose control over their citizens and are unable to impose restrictions or track their actions. Without the decentralization issue, they are able to actively put up firewalls, ban apps or services, gather citizens’ data, and track what’s being written about them.
For example, China cuts off Facebook, then the US cuts off TikTok and WeChat, leaving many people disconnected. What else do they have in mind? If the technology war goes against races, what can be for all the people?
Blockchain can recast the political structure
People doubt technology, but only technology in the hands of people can ultimately save them. So, it’s not really a war of technologies but against people who control them. When the political power is excessively constrained at the hands of governments and large tech companies that control a staggering amount of user data, blockchain distributes that power to whoever is accountable and prevents data privacy issues and data-centered scandals from surfacing.
In authoritarian centralized regimes, the decentralization issue often ends up taking a back seat. It really does grant more freedom and hand over the control back to the masses, something that is extremely vital to put an end to political wars such as the US and China’s.
Blockchain has no political orientation
The recently published report by the South China Morning Post reveals that blockchain technology is clearly dominating the country’s startup scene. Over 80 percent of the fintech companies and 40 percent of e-commerce firms have either already invested or piloting projects based on technology.
If there’s one country that knows how not to let a good crisis go to waste, it is China. Despite the long-standing tensions between the US and China and the COVID-19 ravaging China’s manufacturing and supply chain heartlands, the region’s fintech and e-commerce companies are leveraging this opportunity to explore their potential and accelerate growth.
As an observer of wars through all of history, one recognizes that the greatest enemy is the one who wields the greater tools of intimidation. The more technology gains adoption, the closer the world will be one day free of this tool of intimidation by capitalist entities. Greta Thunberg’s speech at the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit on September 23, 2019, brings that picture all too clearly:
You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words… People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
