Piers Tang

Piers Tang is a long-term China observer, focusing on China–United States relations, China's industrial ascent, and the differences between Eastern and Western cultures.

China’s Distinct 4G/5G Path and Its Role in US-Tech Rivalry

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China’s 4G/5G development has followed a distinctive three-pronged evolutionary path integrating institutions, technology, and markets. Shaped by strong state leadership, system-level integration, scenario-driven development, and ecosystem collaboration, this model contrasts sharply with the market- and capital-driven approaches of Europe and the United States, as well as the conglomerate-centered industrial trajectories of Japan and South Korea, … Read more

From Japan’s Decline to Lessons for China–US Tech Rivalry

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The collective decline of Japanese home appliance companies in the Chinese market exemplifies industrial competition and structural transformation. This predicament highlights that, amid dramatic technological paradigm shifts, superior operational efficiency alone—when detached from scenario awareness and ecosystem integration—can become a constraint on adaptation and transformation. Strategic Misjudgments and Slow Market Response Japanese home appliance companies, … Read more

Why China’s Civilizational Resurgence Reframes U.S. Rivalry

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China’s revival is plausible not because of inevitability, but because it rests on durable structural advantages: long civilizational continuity, a large and mobilizable population, a developmental state capable of intervention, and a unifying national narrative shaped by the “century of humiliation.” These features confer a degree of resilience that many historically declining powers lacked. Yet … Read more

Why U.S.–China Cold War Fails to Mirror U.S.–Soviet Success

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The United States’ effort to frame contemporary tensions with China as a “new Cold War” has not generated the strategic leverage Washington once held over the Soviet Union. Although U.S. policy since the late 2010s has drawn heavily from the earlier playbook—tightened technology controls, mobilized alliances, and sharpened ideological language—the impact has been far more … Read more

China EV 2035 Forecast: Lessons from History as a Mirror

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From the moment the Duryea brothers built the first American automobile in 1895, more than 1,900 registered automakers emerged within five years—most evolving from horse-drawn carriage workshops and relying on handcrafted production, with 99% manufacturing fewer than 100 vehicles a year. Yet by 1908, only 253 remained, as Ford’s Model T and its breakthrough in … Read more

China’s Internet Firms Lead Through Combinatorial Innovation

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Chinese internet companies are known for rapidly absorbing successful ideas from competitors and integrating them into their own ecosystems, a practice that significantly accelerates product iteration and industry-wide innovation. By contrast, major American technology firms often respect relatively fixed “spheres of influence,” which can slow the pace of cross-platform evolution. Against this backdrop, Elon Musk … Read more

Huawei’s Constitutional Technocracy, Not One-Man Rule

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In House of Huawei: The Secret History of China’s Most Powerful Company, Eva Dou argues that Huawei has become progressively more closed, secretive, and opaque, mirroring the structure and behavior of China’s political system. While she persuasively documents Huawei’s growing opacity, this analogy risks over-structuralizing the relationship between state and firm. States seek political stability … Read more

Institutionalized Dissent: How Huawei Beats Groupthink

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Huawei’s “Blue Team Report” is an institutionalized mechanism for strategic critique and risk warning, and a core manifestation of the company’s deeply embedded culture of self-criticism. Modeled on the military concept of blue team–red team confrontation, it functions as a normalized, ongoing, and combat-oriented form of adversarial research rather than a fixed-format annual document. By … Read more

Ren Zhengfei’s Strategic Philosophy for China–U.S. Tech Race

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In the context of intensifying U.S.–China technological competition, strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and new energy vehicles have become focal points of national rivalry and innovation. Huawei’s trajectory offers a revealing case through which to examine China’s path toward technological self-reliance, the dynamic interaction between state guidance and market forces, and the global … Read more

China vs. U.S. in Global AI: A Panoramic Strengths Duel

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The global competition in artificial intelligence between China and the United States has evolved into a comprehensive contest of education systems, industrial ecosystems, computing infrastructure, and application-driven innovation. A revealing window into China’s strategic thinking emerged from the minutes of a meeting between Ren Zhengfei and the ICPC chairman, coaches, and award-winning contestants, published on … Read more