The US has become increasingly sensitive over the past decade, about the threatened loss of its hi-tech leadership to China. In the mobile industry, where Motorola and Lucent long ago lost out to European and Chinese vendors, the battle is already over – with the shining exception being Qualcomm. So when a hostile bid for the US’s biggest mobile star converged with the Trump administration’s elevated levels of security and trade paranoia about China, the outcome was hardly surprising. The president intervened to block Broadcom’s proposed takeover of Qualcomm, even though the former is shortly to become an American company. This was unprecedented action before a shareholder vote had even been held on the deal. (Only five takeovers of US…