The United States should adopt a Cold War strategy against China to prevent it from technologically advancing, according to a new report published by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who serves as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“For more than 20 years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has circumvented our export controls and deceived the U.S. officials in charge of administrating them,” the report says.
“The United States must have a win-at-all-costs mentality in these emerging technologies.”
Mr. McCaul compares the ongoing competition for technology like AI and quantum computing to the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union.
By failing to prevent the flow of sensitive technologies to China, his report says, the United States has effectively advanced China’s hypersonic and nuclear weapons programs.
To that end, the report suggests that the United States ought to again adopt an export strategy aimed at crippling another nation’s ability to develop new technologies based on U.S. products.
As such, Mr. McCaul urges that the United States “invest in innovation while denying and delaying China’s access to critical technologies,” and “fencing off the CCP’s commercial activity.”
To implement this “policy of denial,” he says, the Bureau of Industry and Security should be dramatically reformed to place security interests above economic interests.
That process starts, Mr. McCaul says, by ending the agency’s promotion of free trade and re-adopting a Cold War mindset.
“While U.S. officials were pursuing economic engagement, China was executing a path toward technological independence,” the report says.
“In short, if the United States is determined to outcompete China, the fossilized licensing bureaucracy that oversees export controls must break free from its post-Cold War, free trade mentality.”
The U.S. intelligence and security communities have long warned that some technologies transferred to China, whether legally or illicitly, would likely be used by the regime to enhance its military capabilities.
U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said earlier in the year that the CCP was particularly interested in obtaining dominance in the fields of AI and quantum computing, and would likely use those technologies against the United States.
“We’re going to have to compete with China for a long time to protect American interests and American values.”
