REVERSE DEPENDENCY: - MAKING EUROPE’S DIGITAL TECHNOLOGICAL STRENGTHS I NDISPENSABLE TO C HINA

The geopolitical contestation over disruptive technolo- created favourable conditions for a further increase in gies between the United States (US) and the People’s the global market share of Chinese technology compa- Republic of China (PRC) leaves a deep imprint on Eu- nies.3 This undermines the competitiveness of Europe- rope.1 Policymakers in the European Union (EU) and the an firms. [...] Many fear that the possibility of the PRC leverag- that it is virtually impossible to reduce strategic depen- ing its technological dependencies against Europe could dencies to a degree that provides the economic securi- constrain the strategic choices of the EU and the UK. [...] 22 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, “Full Text of the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China”, Beijing, Chinese Government, 2022, accessed 29 October 2023, at zxxx_662805/202210/t20221025_10791908.html 23 Government of the PRC, “中华人民共和国国民经济和社会发展第十四个五年规划和2035年远景目标纲要” [Outline of the People’s Republic of China. [...] It In each technological ecosystem, European policymak- has only one goal in mind: to prevent the transfer of ers need to identify the level of ambition given the technology to China that could be used to threaten feasibility of the actions required to achieve a stated Europe. [...] The colour coding of the icons indicates in European technological indispensability the likelihood of Europe developing or maintaining a technological edge over China within a timeframe of 10 European technological strength is the result of more years.