The welcome news emerging from the G20 meeting in Argentina this month was that China and the United States had agreed to a truce in the escalating trade war the two sides have been fighting for the last year.

Yet a more worrisome question is what will become of the longer-term economic rivalry between the two. For the United States, the trend lines are troubling, particularly as China works methodically to become the world’s technology leader. China’s rise as a technological powerhouse isn’t just a threat to U.S. national pride or jobs—it is becoming a big concern as well for the U.S. military. In some critical industries, the battle for technological dominance is a battle the United States is already losing.