The most important phrase for tech in 2019 was "entity list," the blacklist the U.S. Department of Commerce placed dozens of Chinese companies on, banning them from receiving goods of U.S. origin. Tech became collateral damage in the trade war.
The cutoff of U.S. technology from Chinese telecom giant Huawei and emerging artificial intelligence unicorns SenseTime, Megvii and Yitu means tech's future is now intimately mixed with geopolitics and trade frictions. In 2020 and beyond, tech development will be messier and more uncertain, and consumers and tech companies will bear the consequences.
