TOKYO -- Last month's Next STEP Global Conference in Singapore drew academics, government officials and other experts for closed-door discussions on techno-nationalism, co-sponsored by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
As the fight for supremacy in semiconductors and other advanced technologies escalates, with the U.S. and China at the center, countries are increasingly taking steps to protect their own tech. America's export controls and electric-vehicle subsidies are especially controversial. Washington's strategy of unilateral action plus pressure on allies to follow suit has drawn no small amount of criticism.