In this next part of our special series with Michael Sekora, founder and director of the Socrates Project within the Reagan White House, we tackle myths No. 3 and 4—how decoupling and stopping Chinese theft of Western technology is the key when it comes to the China threat.
Sekora notes: “The only way to counter a strategy is with more effective strategy. So when we talk about decoupling, if we look at decoupling, that’s one of the big examples these days—ways we’re going to solve the problem. But what people don’t realize is when China’s had, what, three generations, three decades. So for three decades, they were considered an up-and-coming country. Okay, we gave them free hand, we were told that the more we encourage them, the quicker they’ll become a democratic country, freedom, all the stuff that we accept in the United States, Western Europe, things like that. So they’ve had three decades to establish all the paths, both direct and indirect, that they need to acquire the technology they require.”