In the waning days of Barack Obama's administration, one of the president's advisory councils issued a report warning of China's plans to snatch control of the critical semiconductor industry. Its recommendation: "Win the race by running faster."
It is sound advice, but the new administration isn't listening. Donald Trump's policies, in fact, offer a road map for how not to compete with China.
That's because team Trump doesn't fully grasp the threat China now poses to the U.S. economy. China is marshaling massive resources to march into high-tech industries, from robotics to medical devices. In the case of semiconductors alone, the state has amassed $150 billion to build a homegrown industry. In a report in March, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China pressed the point that the Chinese government is employing a wide range of tools to pursue these ambitions, from lavishing subsidies on favored sectors to squeezing technology out of foreign firms.