Can U.S. Companies Remain Neutral in U.S.-China Competition?

The intensifying competition between the United States and China poses unique challenges for American firms. Companies with significant dependencies on both countries are understandably reluctant to forfeit the benefits of working in either market and therefore wish to remain neutral. Microsoft president Brad Smith famously argued in 2017 that tech companies should operate as a “Digital Switzerland,” available to everyone but weaponized by no one.

Recent global crises have challenged that formulation. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, for example, forced some American firms decisively off the sidelines. When it comes to a potential confrontation with Beijing, the stakes are considerably higher. American companies are entangled with China on a scale dwarfing their pre-2022 exposure in Russia. Nearly every major global firm now carries dependencies on both Washington and Beijing, and in a crisis over Taiwan, both governments would try to leverage those dependencies to their own advantage. 

Can a strategy of corporate neutrality be made to work? And what implications does it have for policymakers in Washington?
 
On September 16, the Center for the National Interest welcomed two thoughtful and distinguished speakers:

—Isaac Stone Fish, the CEO and Founder of Strategy Risks, a business intelligence firm that quantifies corporate exposure to China. He is the author of a recent piece in The National Interest, “Companies May Become Neutral on US-China Competition Again. That’s a Bad Thing.” Formerly a Beijing correspondent for Newsweek, Stone Fish spent seven years living in China. He was previously Asia editor at Foreign Policy, senior fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, an on-air contributor to CBS, and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post.

—Dmitri Alperovitch, the Co-Founder and Chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, national bestselling author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century, founder of the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and Co-Founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., one of the world’s largest cybersecurity firms. A renowned thought leader on geopolitics, great power competition and cybersecurity strategy, technology visionary and business executive, Alperovitch has served as special advisor to the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) Advisory Council, and was the founding board member of the U.S. Government’s Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) that conducts reviews of major cyber incidents impacting national security.

Paul Saunders, President of the Center for the National Interest, moderated the discussion.