The US Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce have submitted a joint report to the US Trade Representative (USTR) revealing China’s strategic plans to dominate world technology by 2025. The report reveals that the Chinese plan is known as “Made in China 2025”. The content of the report may be discussed in the forthcoming US-China trade conference coming up next week in Washington.
The report shows the Chinese government is working arduously to dominate global technology in the electric vehicles, aerospace, robotics and other tech manufacturing frontiers, the Wall Street Journal reports.
China Forces American Companies to Hand over Trade Secrets to Rivals
Both the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce function as representatives of American companies operating in China. These companies may not be able to criticize the Chinese government publicly, but both chambers of commerce can do this easily and even bring their complaints to the White House.
Last year, an investigation by the USTR revealed that Made in China 2025 may not be favorable to American companies opertating in China, most especially where trade secrets may be yeilded to Chinese competitors. A USTR March 2018 report says China forces American companies in the country to release technological trade secrets to Chinese rivals, and the 142-page report mentions “Made in China 2025” 120 times. About 32 details how the Chinese government is executing this plan in their country.
To this extent, Chinese vice minister of industry and information technology, Xin Guobin, and other Chinese officials have agreed to redraft the plan and improve their policy system. Both business groups also advocate for deeper US-China relationships. The groups report examines how China can modify its economic plans to enable US organizations a level playing ground in the country.
Both the US and China Will Not Favour an Arbitration System to Resolve Complaints
This report provides fodder for US negotiators in the US-China trade talks which comes up on January 30. The Chinese delegation is led by Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s top trade envoy to the United States. Liu played down the ideas bandied on the Made in China 2025 plan, saying the US is exaggerating things. Meanwhile, the US government has decided to postpone plans to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% while the conference lasts until March 1.
The report recommends that a new international arbitration system be set up to handle complaints submitted by US organizations operating in China. But this recommendation may not pan out since President Trump hates the influence of international agencies, and China would not favor a global arbitration body that could undermine its judiciary or overule their decisions.