US has no effective tool to prevent China’s tech theft, says Treasury official.

The United States is facing a major challenge in combating China’s widespread espionage and intellectual property theft, according to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Rosen. Despite years of competition and ongoing IP theft, the U.S. has not developed the necessary tools to prevent the continued transfer of sensitive U.S. technologies to China.

“We currently assess we don’t have an effective tool to target the money and sophistication with know-how that goes into these sensitive and most critical technologies into countries of concern. We risk leaving a gap in terms of some of our national security concerns.”

Rosen emphasized that the Biden administration is committed to defending U.S. security interests and will prioritize those interests over economic development if necessary. However, he also stated that more tools are required to achieve this goal.

“The United States will secure our interests and those of our allies and partners. We will not compromise on national security concerns, even when they force trade-offs with economic interests.”

These remarks confirm expert testimony delivered to Congress last year, which stated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engaged in anti-competitive and anti-free market practices on a global scale, and that the United States lacks adequate non-security tools to defend its interests.

Policies That Benefited Corporate Profits

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the committee chair, pointed out that the United States had fostered a system of policies over several decades that had strengthened China at the expense of the American people. He argued that the nation’s current struggles to counter China are owed to policies that benefited corporate profits instead of American well-being.

• The U.S. lacks effective tools to combat China’s espionage and IP theft
• The Biden administration is committed to defending U.S. security interests
• The U.S. lacks adequate non-security tools to defend its interests
• Policies that benefited corporate profits have strengthened China at the expense of the American people