By Chris Carney
As Democrats meet together at the Democratic National Convention to chart their vision for the future, they must prioritize an especially important issue: securing America’s role as a global leader in technology and innovation.
Why? Because no matter who wins the presidency this November, the U.S. stands at a pivotal juncture. We face escalating ambitions from foreign adversaries such as China that want to supplant our technology and artificial intelligence leadership. And if they do, a dark wave of digital authoritarianism will spread across the globe, threatening our security, our economy and our values.
American innovation has long stood as the engine of our country’s economy. Cities such as Chicago are leading the way with large investments in quantum computing, developing a high-value innovation hub. Gov. JB Pritzker’s fiscal year 2025 state budget includes $500 million to build a world-leading quantum computing campus, attracting billions of dollars in potential private sector and federal government investment. American lawmakers must follow Pritzker’s lead in scaling up investments and creating momentum for the tech sector. These investments will not only buoy communities and drive innovation, but they will also help protect American interests on the global stage.
U.S. policymakers need to act quickly, as China is aggressively investing in tech and innovation to outpace us. The Chinese Communist Party is determined to become the world’s preeminent technological superpower by 2049, and it is spending trillions of dollars to get there. The threat is not hypothetical or far in the future. FBI Director Christopher Wray warned, “The cyber threat posed by the Chinese government is massive. China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined.” According to senior U.S. counterintelligence officials, China steals $500 billion annually of U.S. technology and intellectual property — the equivalent of taking $4,000 to $6,000 annually from every family of four in America. In the 4D chess game of technology and national security, American leaders must be cognizant of losing control of the board and act accordingly.