As the U.S. Senate holds a hearing to examine anti-innovation legislation this week, the importance of maintaining our technological leadership as we face high-stakes competition with China cannot be understated.
Washington has rightly put a stronger emphasis on competing with China’s growing technological threat to the United States. With the formation of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on China, there is bipartisan support to ensure that China does not forge ahead in tech innovation, which underpins U.S. national security, our economy, and our democratic values.
However, as leaders on both sides of the aisle recognize this challenge that America is facing, some are still pursuing misguided anti-innovation legislation that would undermine U.S. technology and weaken the ability of our domestic sector to compete with China in this high-stakes tech race. These anti-innovation policies would slow research and development, thwart innovation, and could hand China a decades-long advantage.
A new report found that China now leads America in 37 of 44 key critical technology areas. We cannot afford to hamstring our domestic tech sector and fall behind China in critical technologies of the future. To ensure the United States maintains our tech leadership, Washington must strengthen our domestic tech sector and accelerate American innovation. It matters greatly which country – and which set of values – builds the future.
Watch what lawmakers are saying in a series of recent hearings on the growing technological threat posed by China here.
U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on China (R-WI): “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is laser-focused on its vision for the future, a world crowded with techno-totalitarian surveillance states.”
U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on China (D-IL): “The goal of the CCP has become clear to displace U.S. and other competitors, especially in tomorrow’s strategic industries.”
U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee (R-WA): “It’s no secret that the Chinese Communist Party wants to replace the United States as a global economic and technological power. Whether it’s artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, or smart devices, China wants to dominate these new and emerging technologies.”
U.S. Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-FL): “The CCP will stop to at nothing undermine our global leadership and weaken our economy.”
U.S. Representative Darin LaHood (R-IL): “It has become more clear to me than ever that China has a plan to replace the United States, and they’re working at it every day. Replace our economy, replace us in technology, replaces when it comes to national security, in the military and diplomatically.”
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): “China has the ambition of becoming the dominant country and self-sufficient in key leading-edge technologies, and they have a plan to do it.”
U.S. Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA): “The Chinese Communist Party is a threat to the United States, it is the threat of our lifetime.”
U.S. Representative Gregory Meeks, ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee (D-NY): “Now the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its policies clearly present the greatest geopolitical challenge that the United States faces today.”
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (D-NJ): “We have to remain vigilant because Beijing is reaching beyond its borders. Spreading authoritarian values by exporting high tech surveillance tools to any dictator it wants.”
U.S. Representative Kathy Castor (D-FL): “The CCP has dramatically increased the export of surveillance technology abroad.”
U.S. Representative Mike McCaul, chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee (R-TX): “There’s no doubt that the growing aggression of the Chinese communist party poses a generational threat to the United States. From using a spy balloon to surveil some of America’s most sensitive military sites to their theft of upwards of $600 billion of American intellectual property (IP) every year, most of which goes into their military.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT): “Making sure that we are supporting our efforts to make sure that the Western companies and Western technology are ultimately being able to keep pace with Chinese technologies.”
U.S. Representative Cammack (R-FL): “We are innovators. From Space Race to deployment of the internet, the United States has been an international leader on scientific innovation and achievement a free-market model paired with our national creative quotient, including private R&D efforts, no doubt drives much of our success as a leader in the world.”
U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI): “Here is the reality, we have got to preserve and expand this advantage by ensuring that the United States, not countries like China, writes the rules of the road for this new transformative technology.”
U.S. Representative Greg Stanton (D-AZ): “That’s why I’m gravely concerned about the left of American intellectual property by the PRC. last fall FBI Director Wray warned that not only does Chinese IP left threaten these companies’ bottom lines but it jeopardizes our economic competitiveness and national security.”