West’s Russia Model Won’t Work with China: Why Tech Sanctions Alone Cannot Deter Dragon

The tech sanctions on Russia would have a devastating impact on its economy and affect the domestic market’s accessibility to basic technology goods. But if there is Chinese aggression against Taiwan in the near future, can these sanctions work? Will tech sanctions serve as a credible tool to deter or even punish the Chinese state from conducting their own military operations across the Taiwan straits? For a technologically advanced state such as China, will these targeted sanctions have any impact on its tech economy? China is much more integrated into the global economy and supply chain. And, that makes it much more difficult to have broad-based sanctions against China unlike those against Russia; it also makes sanctions far more costly for China because it has much more to lose.

A Blueprint for India to Insulate Itself from Future Tech Sanctions

One interesting aspect of the conflict has been the use of tech sanctions by the West, its allies and even private technology companies to deny Russia access to critical technology components needed for the running its critical sectors, like space and telecommunications. This is the first time that specific technology sanctions have been levied against a single country. The impact of these sanctions can be absolutely devastating to the government and its strategic sectors, and even create inaccessibility to domestic consumers.

The Effect Of Tech Sanctions On The Russian Economy

During the course of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, the West (mainly the United States and its NATO allies) have been looking at deterrence mechanisms to curtail Russia's continuous military offensives. The current actions taken against Russia have mainly been in the form of targeting the Russian economy through sanctions and embargoes specifically targeting sectors that Russia relies on for export revenues. The recent announcement by President Joe Biden on banning Russian oil, gas, and energy imports to the US is just one of the decisions that are hitting the core of the economy. But, the US, has also specifically introduced high-tech sanctions mainly depriving Russia the access to critical technologies (like semiconductors, quantum, artificial intelligence, and big data) and their applications.