China’s control over digital trade networks becomes a critical vulnerability for the US at moments like the ongoing Iran conflict, the CEO of a New York-based global supply chain management platform told Semafor.
“[Beijing] can see what’s going to Lockheed,” Altana AI’s Evan Smith said, “they can shut down and divert goods, they can see supply chains and interfere.”
Smith argued that the West didn’t notice when China built out a state-supported logistics data management platform that connected to physical infrastructure such as ports and cranes. But now, he warned, with Beijing targeting chokepoints like rare earths, China “holds all the trump cards.”