In October, the ruling Chinese Communist Party held a vast military parade on the streets of Beijing. Over 15,000 troops, 160 aircraft, tanks, combat drones and intercontinental missiles were deployed to demonstrate China’s military might.

It was, in part, a response to President Trump’s ‘Salute to America’, a 4th of July parade through the heart of Washington with flyovers from B2 bombers, fighter jets and the experimental Marine One helicopter.

It was real boys with their toys stuff as Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping glowered and flexed their military might. But for all the expensive posturing, the real conflict between the world’s two wealthiest economic superpowers is more banal and becoming increasingly embittered. A technological war threatening to split the world in two.

Escalating trade tension has seen tit-for-tat tariffs across goods as far ranging as live geese, cheese and orchids, but it is no surprise to find technology at the heart of it.

In a major broadside, it emerged this week that Beijing had ordered government offices to remove all ‘foreign’ computer equipment and software in the next three years and replace it with ‘domestically-made’ products.

According to the Financial Times, China intends to make substitutions of an estimated 20m-30m pieces of hardware at a rate of 30pc in 2020, 50pc in 2021 and the final 20pc in 2022, earning the policy the nickname ‘3-5-2’.

The policy will immediately affect swathes of tech companies such as Microsoft and Oracle, Counterpoint Research’s Neil Shah says, that “the tech Cold War between the US and China is getting more intense”.