To read the headlines, it would be fair to assume that relations between US and Chinese companies in the hi-tech world were at a two-decade low, and that there was a virtual breakdown of cooperation between the two countries’ ecosystems, outside of the rarefied world of official standards bodies. However, despite worsening geopolitics, it is simply impossible for major hi-tech players on either side to cut their ties. Many years and huge sums of money and brainpower have gone into shared R&D, cross-licensing and sales, and into formal joint ventures as well as less formal collaborations. To wind these down abruptly would set companies back by years in some key technologies such as automotive connectivity and 5G chipsets. And of…