Sen. Marco Rubio published a report this week revealing the successes and failures of China’s global campaign to obtain technology and dominate critical markets called “Made in China 2025.”
“The Chinese Communist Party controls the largest industrial base in the world. Through theft, market distorting subsidies and strategic planning, Beijing now leads in many of the industries that will determine geopolitical supremacy in the 21st century,” the Florida Republican said. “We need a whole-of-society effort to rebuild our country, overcome the China challenge, and keep the torch of freedom lit for generations to come.”
The report concludes that China has conquered four of the 10 high-value, high-technology sectors that it set out to dominate with its program: electric vehicles, energy and power generation, high-speed railways and shipbuilding.
Beijing partially dominates five other key sectors, including aerospace and aviation, biotechnology, new materials development; robotics and machine tools and semiconductors.
The only area where China failed to achieve the domination it sought was agricultural machinery.
Overall, Chinese research leads in 37 of 44 critical technologies and is ahead of most nations in smart manufacturing.
The report urges policymakers to take steps to protect Americans from China’s predatory economic tactics. The U.S. government also should implement targeted industrial policy to rebuild the American economic base.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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