Rust is much more than just a programming language

2026-01-04

When software engineers were cut off from GitHub simply due to their birthplace, I warned, "Today it targets the Iranian, but who tomorrow?" We could all sense the USA grappling with its fading unipolar dominance, unwilling to share power quietly. It became clear that any contender for the top would face sanctions. China recognized this threat, exemplified by the campaign against Huawei. Its strategic response was to double down on Open Source, first as a shield against sanctions, and later as a means to lead global standards. Integral to this shift is China's adoption of Rust to build critical low-level systems, like the Asterinas kernel and its own Rust Async Runtime. Rust offers a cheaper, faster path to rebuilding core infrastructure, finally allowing new players to challenge a monopolized market.

Today, the USA’s biggest leverage is its chip supremacy, particularly NVIDIA's GPUs. Regardless of one’s views on GenAI, the battle lines of this new cold war are drawn around computing power. After the U.S. blocked access to advanced chips and TSMC’s manufacturing, China’s counter-strategy emerged on two fronts: a national pivot to open architectures like RISC-V, and private-sector innovation, with Huawei investing massively to produce capable chips with available tech. Each closed door thus opens a window, this time, to a multi-polar world where technology is a shared foundation, not a proprietary weapon.

For someone from the Global North, this might not sound so interesting. For those of us in the Global South, it’s a narrative of hope. It’s a guard against a new form of digital colonialism. This is why China’s long-standing advocacy for multilateralism resonates beyond diplomacy; it signals the possibility of a more balanced technological order we can all participate in building.

The core mission of Rust is to empower everyone to build reliable and efficient software. It’s no surprise, then, that it's the foundation for a new generation of critical infrastructure: the next version of InfluxDB, the search engine Quickwit, and Polars. This global trend is equally powerful in China, where Huawei invests heavily in Rust and is part of the Rust Foundation.

In essence, Rust functions like a printing press for systems programming: it democratizes and accelerates the spread of robust engineering knowledge. Its compiler teaches about memory and concurrency. Its community provides essential support when the compiler's errors are inscrutable. It helps individuals who would like to learn more, but also countries fighting for digital sovereign.

Rust is not just a programming language, but a tool for revolution.