SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA – China’s rampant theft of intellectual property from American institutions and industry must be thwarted as the U.S. battles to remain the world’s economic and military leader – but America cannot completely decouple from the economic behemoth, Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
The key, according to Rounds, is maintaining China as a key trade partner without giving them access to America’s technology, including artificial intelligence and computer chips.
“In doing so, maybe we’ll restrict their ability to actually be able to have a market that they can create their own stuff with. They’ll be using ours. And in using ours, they’ll be our standards,” Rounds told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library during the Reagan National Economic Forum on Friday in California.
“Let’s not necessarily just totally divest. Let’s see if we can have an influence on them and the rest of the world as well when it comes to standards for AI and other technological advances in the future,” he added.
Rounds was among the conference panelists who spoke on the threats China poses as President Donald Trump addresses the country’s chronic trade deficit with foreign nations, and his optimism for the future as the U.S. sprints to remain the world’s economic and military leader.
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South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds was a panelist for the inaugural Reagan National Economic Forum in California. (Getty Images)
Rounds’ remarks focused on keeping the U.S. in the driver’s seat of the world’s economy, which he explained is deeply entwined in technological advances and bucking Chinese theft of intellectual property, while also acknowledging and combating how China has advanced into a “near-peer competitor” with the U.S. from a military standpoint.
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