True High-Tech Makes Others Anxious | Generated by AI
Wang Xing (founder and CEO of Meituan) made this famous remark around 2018–2019, right when the US-China tech/trade war was heating up and ZTE/Huawei were getting sanctioned. The original Chinese quote is roughly:
“真正的高科技不是别人想卡你，而是你不卖给别人，别人会着急。比如芯片。”
Translation:
“The real high-tech is not when others want to choke you, but when you refuse to sell it to others, and they get anxious. For example, chips.”
What he really meant (core idea)
He was drawing a sharp distinction between two levels of technology competitiveness:
- Mid-tier / “neck-stuck” technology (被卡脖子)
- You depend on others for critical parts/components.
- If they stop selling to you, your industry grinds to a halt.
- Classic example at the time: China’s inability to produce advanced lithography machines (ASML’s EUV) or high-end EDA software → the US can sanction you and you’re helpless.
- This is the situation most Chinese tech companies (including Meituan itself in some areas) were in. You live in fear of being “blocked.”
- True “threshold” technology (卡脖子能力)
- You control the irreplaceable, monopolistic part of the supply chain.
- Other countries need YOU more than you need them.
- If you impose export controls, the other side panics.
- Classic example:
- American/Japanese/Dutch dominance in semiconductor equipment and materials (EUV machines, photoresists, silicon wafers, etc.)
- When the US restricts advanced chips/node to China, Chinese fab construction slows dramatically, but when China restricted gallium/germanium/antimony exports in 2023–2024, Western defense and auto industries freaked out.
Wang Xing’s point was brutally honest:
Most of what China calls “high-tech” (internet platforms, apps, EVs without the core chips, etc.) is actually the first category — impressive, profitable, but ultimately vulnerable. Real, strategic high technology flips the power dynamic: you hold the choke point, not the neck that gets choked.
Why he said it (context)
- He was talking to his own employees/investors, essentially saying: “Don’t be too proud of Meituan’s valuation or user numbers. In the big picture, we are still in the ‘easy to get strangled’ camp. The semiconductor people (TSMC, ASML, Applied Materials, etc.) are playing a different game — the game that actually matters in great-power competition.”
- It was a rare moment of public humility from a Chinese tech billionaire, acknowledging the real technology gap.
Real-world examples that prove his point
| Technology | Who has the “not selling makes others panic” power? | Result when restricted |
|---|---|---|
| EUV lithography machines | ASML (Netherlands, but US-controlled) | China’s 5nm-and-below progress delayed years |
| Advanced chips (≤7nm) | TSMC + Nvidia/AMD | Huawei phones crippled after 2020 |
| High-end EDA software | Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor (all US) | Chinese design houses severely handicapped |
| Gallium, Germanium, Antimony | China (70–90% of world supply) | West scrambled for alternatives in 2023–2025 |
| Rare-earth magnets (NdFeB) | China (~90% processed supply) | US/EU/Japan terrified of cutoff for decades |
So when Wang Xing says “the real high tech is the one countries worry you won’t sell them,” he’s pointing exactly at that second row: whoever controls the true bottleneck has the real power.
In short: He was telling the Chinese tech industry (and himself), “Stop bragging about being a superpower in apps and delivery. Real technological supremacy looks like Intel/TSMC/ASML in the 1990s–2020s — when America doesn’t sell, the whole world begs.”