The United States and Europe are circling China with two of the most economically lethal tools of the 21st century: chip CAD design tools and chip machines. For the first, Cadence, the industry-leading maker, has cut-off selling software to China. Cadence controls more than 90% of the market when it comes to making advanced ASIC (application specific integrated circuits) and high-end processors. In the second part, you have the world’s leader on making advanced (extreme ultraviolet) lithography machines; ASML is unrivaled and it is the global leader.
Yes, for the most advanced ASML machines, China has been cut-off: “The tightening grip of export controls on China’s semiconductor industry just got tighter, as the Netherlands restricted Dutch chip tool giant ASML Holding from servicing some of its most advanced machines in China.”
Good People, Africa needs to get the message: globalization is an illusion. It works when you are benefitting. But when you are losing, the message changes. Europe which colonized and destroyed empires, and which over decades, has been preaching globalization suddenly is afraid of one. Why? If China is part of this game, global trading is bad.
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But it is also a message to China: if you have 1.3 billion people, if you empower them to deepen domestic consumption, you may not really have to deal with this 21st century evolving de-globalization. It is the export-first strategy that is bringing this asymmetric friction to you. (Who is this village boy telling China what to do? Allow me, I am a teacher and that is what we do.)
For Nigeria, my message remains that Nigerian ports are porous. I do not believe in uncontrolled open markets in the ways we run them in the country. And that is why anytime the Nigerian customs service has broken revenue records, I feel bad, because that is an indication that Nigeria is deindustrializing. Nigeria needs to learn from Europe where it is restricting the importation of electric vehicles and many things, because China has better comparative advantages to make those, and Europe does not want to lose from the inside.
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