This graduate seminar examines the critical role of technology and critical supply chains in shaping contemporary US-China relations, with particular emphasis on developments from 2015-2027. The course analyzes how competition over advanced technologies—including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, EVs and batteries, rare earths, humanoid robots, and emerging technologies such quantum computing—has become central to the bilateral relationship and broader questions of global economic and security order.

Students will explore the origins of US China technology competition, along with Chinese industrial policy initiatives, evolving US export control, inbound and outbound investment, and supply chain control regimes, competing approaches to innovation and technology governance, and the strategic implications of technological decoupling.

Drawing on the latest policy analysis, industry research, and academic scholarship—including contemporary Substack analysis, think tank reports, podcasts, and emerging policy debates in Washington and Beijing—the seminar situates current technology competition within broader frameworks of great power competition, economic statecraft, and national security strategies. The course is designed for graduate students in international relations, political economy, science and technology studies, and related fields.