White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said President Trump’s tariffs against China will help protect the U.S. from China’s long-term plan to dominate key military technology within the next decade.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Navarro said China is looking to dominate sectors like robotics and artificial intelligence, by acquiring U.S. technology through illegal trade practices. He said Trump’s tariffs will curb China.
“China seeks to achieve its goal of economic and military domination in part by acquiring the best American technology and intellectual property,” he wrote. “President Trump’s new tariffs will provide a critical shield against this aggression.”
[Also read: Trump’s trade war with China worries GOP senators]
Navarro said the tariffs are aimed at punishing two Chinese practices aimed at stealing U.S. technology. One is the theft of U.S. intellectual property rights, and the other is forcing U.S. companies to produce in China along side Chinese partner companies as a condition of selling goods there.
“Once a foreign company enters a joint venture in China, technology and IP transfers may occur through joint manufacturing,” he wrote. “A Chinese partner could even use its access and proximity to steal the technology outright.”
Navarro said Trump’s move to impose retaliatory tariffs against China will fight back against these predatory trade practices, and pressure China to stop.
“If China continues to escalate this trade dispute rather than treat the U.S. fairly, Americans may finally wake up to an economic and national-security threat that the president has seen coming for decades,” he wrote. “With its huge trade surplus with the U.S., China must know it has far more to lose in this trade dispute.”
