During 2020, the United States deployed an extraordinary variety of offensive tools in its efforts to combat strategic competitors from achieving technological parity. There now appears to be a willingness to use tariffs, sanctions, export controls, and a number of other measures in the interest of what is often referred to as national security but is more precisely described as techno-nationalism or the protectionism of technological innovation. Deploying §232 and §301 tariffs, restrictions on exports and foreign investment in the United States, as well as other coercive tools, the United States has erected higher walls around the crown jewels.

Through the implementation of §889(a)(1)(B) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2019 (Pub. L. No. 115-232), the United States restricted the use of Huawei and ZTE equipment in U.S. telecommunications networks. Concurrently, the United States effectively lobbied many of its allies to do likewise. The United States has also used a number of restricted party lists to specifically identify foreign entities as military end users, supporters of human rights violations, or malicious cyber actors, thereby enabling the limitation on the import or use of products made by such entities.