The Politics of Semiconductors in Canada and Abroad

The semiconductor industry has become a lightning rod for geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. Competition in the technological frontier has become an arena where both the US and China are competing for dominance. In the latter half of 2022, the Biden administration signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the US, and enacted sweeping export controls against China. This week's episode takes a deep dive into how geopolitical tensions between the US and China are impacting the semiconductor industry and their broader ramifications for the global economy. 

Through a conversation with Antonia Hmaidi of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, the first segment of the episode breaks down the impacts of the chip war on economies of US and China, and takes a look at how the US is changing the way export controls are being used. 

In the second segment, we have a conversation with Benjamin Bergen from the Council of Canadian Innovators. This segment provides a Canadian perspective on the chip war, and whether Canada should pursue its own long-term goal of domestic semiconductor production.

Guests:

Antonia Hmaidi is an Analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies located in Germany. She works on China’s pursuit of tech self-reliance (especially in areas like semiconductors and operating systems), its internet infrastructure, and disinformation and hacking campaigns. Hmaidi also develops modelling and big data analysis tools. She gained experience as a project manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, worked at the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), as a journalist in Asia and at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Antonia holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Politics and Economics from Ruhr University Bochum and Renmin University of China, and a master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institutes of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva and New Delhi.

Benjamin Bergen is the President of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a national, non-partisan business council for the 21st century economy, led by over 150 CEOs of Canada’s fastest growing homegrown technology scale-ups. CCI is focused on optimizing the growth of Canada’s innovation-based sector, and Benjamin leads the execution of its ambitious economic development agenda. CCI is working with leading Canadian companies which feed in to the global semiconductor supply chain, and calling on Canada to develop a national semiconductor strategy.

Producers:

Raagini Singh Panwar - Junior Producer

Vicky Li - Junior Producer