5G Photo: Xinhua

 
Chinese and US technology companies at the CES 2020 have reaffirmed the significance of close cooperation by seeking more potential partners to firm up a better position in the 5G space, which is expected to scale this year, despite more recent moves by the US side to crack down on Chinese tech companies.

5G technology, along with 8K and foldable devices, have become the most dominant trends at the CES 2020 that officially kicked off in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Lenovo officially launched the world’s first 5G personal computer (PC) “Yoga 5G” featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx processor as well as Qualcomm’s X55 5G modem.

China and US tech companies are highly interdependent and have complementary cooperation, Lenovo chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing told the Global Times.

Almost all high-tech companies use parts from both countries. Technology should not be divided by borders. All industry leaders should integrate their tech advantages to provide global consumers with more quality products, Yang said.

Besides announcing cooperation with Lenovo, Qualcomm has also announced cooperation with Chinese smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and Oppo, expressing confidence in China’s market.

Leon Zhang, a Qualcomm product manager, told the Global Times that for high-tech industries like 5G, it’s virtually impossible to restrict technological development to a single country.

The global industrial chain is continuing to expand. The US enjoys advantages in basic research in some sectors, but if it neglects China’s complementary advantage in application and integration, it will in turn impact US companies, Zhang added.

CES is not just a window for consumers to get a glimpse of future benefits from cutting-edge technologies. More importantly, it’s the world’s biggest electronics show for tech companies to seek potential partners, especially overseas ones that can help each other provide better products to the world, Yu Lei, an independent industry observer who has been to CES for about ten years, told the Global Times.

The global industry chain in the 5G era needs a new perspective. Cooperative partners should be considered based on their tech productivity, rather than which country they come from, Tom Butler, Lenovo's ThinkPad marketing director, told the Global Times.

Chinese companies have been a strong force at the CES for years, and now they are making progress in innovation. Their participation in the CES indeed has been influenced by the bruising China-US trade war, but they still retain their momentum, Yang said.

The phase one trade deal will largely boost Chinese and US companies’ confidence, especially for those multinational companies that expect a level playing field in the global market, Yang added.