South-East Asia’s reliance on China may upend US-EU plan for global tech standards

‘China is a fundamental partner to these countries in technology, trade and production’, so asking them to choose sides will be a challenge, US experts say. The EU and US recently deepened their commitment to ‘work together to align our technology standards in a way that’s consistent with our democratic values’. — SCMP

Washington’s efforts to promote global tech standards developed with the EU may falter in Asia because the region is too dependent on Chinese products, a panel of experts said on May 18.

While not officially an effort to counter China, the EU and US deepened their commitment to “work together to align our technology standards in a way that’s consistent with our democratic values” after the second meeting of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in Paris on Monday, a statement said.