Chair Blumenthal, Ranking Member Hawley, and members of the subcommittee: thank you for the opportunity to testify before you. Today, I will address a critical national security challenge—the extensive economic and technological interdependence between U.S. technology companies and China. This relationship has deepened amid an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, and we must better understand the national security risks these ties present, as well as how they may impact corporate decision-making during future crises.
The historical, political, geographic, economic, and security dynamics of Russia-Ukraine and China-Taiwan relations differ significantly. However, the role U.S. tech companies have played in supporting Ukraine has sparked interest in how these and other firms might respond to potential Chinese aggression against Taiwan, whether military or otherwise. My testimony draws on a CSET report published earlier this year that analyzes the impact of economic dependencies on corporate decision-making through two main case studies: U.S. technology companies’ support for Ukraine against Russia in the aftermath of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, and the anticipated complexities these same companies may face in a Taiwan contingency or other conflict with China.1 Unlike in the Ukraine crisis, where U.S. technology firms had relatively limited exposure to Russia and acted quickly to defend Ukraine, a conflict with Beijing could present significant strategic challenges given these companies’ deep economic and technological dependencies on China.