Losing the innovation warfare battle to China causes World War III

Innovation, in particular, technology-based innovation, is the key driver for both economic competitiveness and national security. Other nations, with interests adverse to the United States, recognize this fact. In an increasingly interconnected world, nation states seek to accumulate innovation prowess, and hence economic strength, as a key element of their geopolitical power. Especially savvy nation states also pursue such ends as a mechanism to influence or diminish the national security and geopolitical power of the United States. There is no need to inflict upon the world the carnage of war if one’s geopolitical aims can be achieved via alternative competitive means. Several authors suggest China’s long-term ambitions include unseating the United States as the world’s economic and political leader.1 More compelling than opinions, several United States (“U.S.”) government and private studies document a systematic and coordinated effort by China to achieve technical and economic dominance through misappropriation of U.S. technology.2 These efforts are additionally supported by a companion effort to weaken international economic institutions and norms designed to protect U.S. intellectual property and free trade.3 The Chinese tactics include illegal means, and sophisticated use of legal means, to misappropriate U.S. technology and weaken the U.S. innovation infrastructure including: a) Leveraging the open university and laboratory ecosystem via direct sponsorship and engagement of Chinese nationals;4 b) Devaluing U.S. positions in patents and technology platforms;5 and c) Accessing private sector U.S. technology through acquisitions and ownership stakes in existing firms, funding of high-tech start-ups, and forced joint ventures and other contractual agreements as a prerequisite for entering the Chinese market.6 This particular form of competitive strategy targeting the innovation ecosystem in the United States is labeled by the Authors as “Innovation Warfare,”7 and it is defined as an executable competitive strategy: a) Reflecting an innovation, intellectual property, and technology strategy articulated and executed by the state (e.g. China); b) Using illegal means, political means, and legal economic activities—of the type previously residing solely in the province of commercial enterprise, to achieve the state’s objectives; c) Employing these economic and innovation activities to achieve both economic geopolitical power and to enhance military capabilities; and d) Functioning as a military, national security, and defense doctrine not solely as a reflection of the state’s economic policy goals nor commercial competition in the ordinary course. Innovation Warfare does not just threaten American jobs and economic prosperity. By simultaneously co-opting and weakening the innovation capabilities of the United States, China seeks to advance its rise to world power. China’s prosecution of Innovation Warfare not only encompasses a rejection of a rules-based international order, but also poses an existential threat. A world where China dominates the technology landscape is not just about who earns the profits or prevails in an abstract geopolitical fight. According to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America (“National Security Strategy”), China pursues a world in which economies are less free, less fair, and less likely to respect human dignity and freedoms.8 China’s Innovation Warfare activities risk the type of economic and geopolitical aggressions that were a root cause of two World Wars.