【Pacific Dialogue】Washington Must Stop Witch-Hunt of Chinese Companies

It looks like the U.S.-initiated trade war against China is heading down a dark tunnel with no end in sight. We will need to be patient and get ready for a long battle. Both Chinese and U.S. scholars, media and business insiders have warned Washington that a trade war is going to hurt both sides. But the White House has turned a deaf ear. One of the main arguments used by the Donald Trump administration is that China is “stealing” U.S. technologies. Chinese tech company Huawei has become the second target of the U.S. witch-hunt. Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei responded to a Bloomberg journalist, who accused him of “stealing” U.S. technology. Ren said, “The U.S. has not developed that technology, so from where should I steal it?” The White House has picked the wrong fight. Huawei just happened to account for more than half of the international patent applications in 2018, “an all-time record by anyone,” according to World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry. I had the privilege of visiting one of Huawei’s R&D centers in Xi’an, capital of north China’s Shaanxi Province, back in 2016. The manager said Huawei had entered “unchartered territory.” He said it was always easy to follow others’ footsteps, but with no one ahead, the company had to find the courage and take […]