Abstract: As global economic integration continues to advance, international trade has become increasingly vital for the economic development and growth of nations. This research aims to assess the trends in industrial technology security within China’s international trade and provide practical guidance for policy-making, corporate strategies, and international cooperation. The significance of the rising trend in security within China’s international trade industry lies in its establishment of a robust foundation for the long-term development of China’s international trade, contributing to its cooperation and competitiveness with other countries. In addressing the limitations of traditional measurement methods and providing a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of industrial technology security, this research presents an approach based on a discrete Hopfield Neural Network (HNN) for evaluating industrial technology security in international trade. This method integrates multiple indicators, including technology gap rates, to construct the Superior Quality Engineering (SQE) comprehensive evaluation model. The research employs a combination model of “entropy-grey relational-Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)-discrete HNN” to assess industrial technology security. This research evaluates international trade industry technology security using patent data from 2015 to 2022 as samples. The results indicate an overall upward trend in security in China’s international trade industry. Within this trend, the research observes a stepwise increase in scale components, leading to continuous improvement in security. In terms of quality components, although security develops relatively slowly overall, it exhibits a trend of initial gradual decline followed by rapid growth. Regarding efficiency components, there is overall slow growth with periodic fluctuations. This research outcome provides substantial support for the research of industrial technology in international trade. The proposed method can assist businesses in evaluating their technological security in international trade and offer robust support for international trade decision-making.
