The latest strike in the trade battle between the US and China has landed, literally, on the desks of Chinese government offices and public bodies. Beijing has ordered the removal of foreign computer equipment and software within three years. Chinese buyers will have to switch to domestic technology vendors. The policy edict is not a surprise: Chinese technology companies, notably Huawei, have been among the chief targets of the trade dispute with the US. The move is a pre-emptive defence to protect China’s domestic supply base. Washington, driven by security and economic concerns, this year banned US businesses from doing business with Huawei.

In reality, both sides have much to lose. China, whatever its advances in technological research, still relies heavily on foreign knowhow and imports. The US, meanwhile, in pursuing a protectionist agenda under president Donald Trump, may end up spurring innovation in China rather than hindering its progress. There is also a wider significance. The decoupling of the technology sectors between the two countries is becoming a reality. The danger is that this decoupling turns into a giant rift — one that splits the internet between dominant US and Chinese spheres.

Beijing has been pursuing a “decoupling” agenda for more than a decade. It has long viewed self-sufficiency through the lens of national security. The country blocked the services of Google and Facebook among others ostensibly because public criticism of China’s political system is a breach of national security. Yet, at the same time, the market gap has been filled by domestic groups such as Tencent. Beijing should consider the risks of a more radical shift towards self-reliance: the country is heavily integrated in technology value chains with a large share of global exports and imports. In the case of integrated circuits and optical devices, for example, Chinese imports outstrip China’s domestic production by a factor of five, said a report by McKinsey, the management consultancy.