The ‘chip wars’ between the US and China will have far-reaching technological and military repercussions

A visit to Beijing by the US Treasury secretary is the latest attempt to calm the economic clashes between the two superpowers centred on commercial disputes, writes Kim Sengupta. But the race for advanced hardware is every bit as important as the arms races of the past

Joe Biden, right, and Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of a G20 summit late last year – but the economic tit-for-tat has continued between the US and China (AFP/Getty)

The visit to China by the US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, is being seen as an opportunity to seek a reset in the growing strategic confrontation between Washington and Beijing.

Ms Yellen started her term two years ago as a strong critic of Xi Jinping’s government, attacking its “unfair and illegal” economic practices and its human rights crackdown against the Uyghur community in Xinjiang and pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. But she has taken a more emollient tone of late, stressing the need for stability and the maintenance of economic ties with China.

Her trip, however, takes place against the backdrop of an escalating semiconductor war that has been triggered between the superpowers: a race for advanced civil and military technologies – to which semiconductors are key – that has brought renewed recriminations between Beijing and the West.