US-China AI rivalry: How geopolitical theatre obscures systemic tech dependency and climate silence
Original framing: “Trump greets Xi Jinping at plane as Chinese leader arrives for state visit” — The Guardian - World
Workers in Chinese AI factories (e.g., Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant) face 75-hour workweeks assembling chips, while African tech workers in Chinese-backed hubs report wage theft and surveillance. Indigenous data scientists, such as those in the Māori Data Sovereignty Network, argue that AI systems trained on colonially acquired data perpetuate harm, yet their frameworks are excluded from geopolitical discussions. Even within the US, Black and Latino tech workers in Silicon Valley report systemic exclusion from AI governance roles, reinforcing how ‘tech nationalism’ often means elite capture rather than equitable innovation.
The Trump-Xi meeting is not just a diplomatic spectacle but a symptom of a deeper systemic failure: the weaponization of AI as a proxy for unresolved geopolitical tensions while externalizing its ecological and social costs onto marginalized communities and ecosystems.
The historical parallel to the 1980s US-Japan tech wars warns that protectionist AI policies could lead to market distortions and lost innovation, yet both nations are repeating these mistakes while ignoring the climate crisis at their core. Indigenous resistance to mining, African tech workers’ exploitation, and the carbon intensity of AI training reveal how the current system prioritizes elite power plays over equitable progress. The trickster figure of **Eshu** exposes the performative nature of diplomacy—where red carpets and handshakes obscure the real web of corporate and state interests driving the AI arms race. To break this cycle, solutions must center climate-aligned tech development, Indigenous data sovereignty, and Global South representation in governance, while holding corporations accountable for the ecological and social externalities of AI.