US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has described as "frightening" China's plan to transform itself into the global technology nexus in 2025, arguing that the initiative could put American intellectual property at risk.
"It's a huge, huge problem," Ross said at a Tuesday gathering of US fabric industry executives, addressing the theft of intellectual property and technology. "And it's not going away."
Ross noted that Beijing's development plan for the year 2025 maps out the country's strategy to dominate "every hot industry" from space to telecommunications to robotics to electric cars.
"They have been the factory floor of the world, now their vision is to be the technology center for the world," he said.
"What they are really trying to do is take their immense trade surplus from the conventional industries of today... and plow them into semiconductor research and every kind of research you can imagine,” he added.
Ross has previously called China's strategic plans for its future technological advancements a direct threat to the United States.
Official data show that China’s economy grew 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2018, defying forecasts that the trade frictions with the US would have adverse impacts on its economy.
US President Donald Trump announced last month that Washington would levy up to $60 billion in tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from a number of countries, including China.
The businessman-turned-politician’s tough trade stand is largely seen as a cudgel to win what he considers better terms in potential negotiations to change the nature of trade relations with China and other countries.
In a retaliatory move, China said it would “dedicate itself to the end and at any cost and will definitely fight back firmly" if the US persists with the tariffs.
Chinese analysts warn that the escalation of tariffs is likely to cause more political trouble for Trump than for Beijing because of the differences in the two countries’ governance structures.
Some analysts believe that Beijing and Washington will eventually reach a compromise and avoid a full-blown trade war; but so far, China and the US have held no formal trade talks to resolve the dispute.