China's growing technological power dangerous for the world

China is said to be doing whatever it takes to gain a technological advantage in the world, stealing intellectual property, engaging in industrial espionage, and forcing technology transfer.

Will Communist China achieve its much-trumpeted 'dream'of global pre-eminence by 2049, the 100th anniversary of its revolution? Observers say it is determined to. Its methodology: constant technological innovation.

In a major speech in the Great Hall of the People on Beijing's Tiananmen Square in May 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced, "Technological innovation has become the main battlefield of the international strategic game." In tune with the spirit of Xi's command, the whole communist system today is working overtime to accomplish this goal.

The Chinese party-state operates hundreds of recruiting networks targeting intellectual property (IP) around the world. It is seeking to acquire foreign technologies to dominate the critical and emerging technologies of the future and to support its military-civil fusion policy of using civilian technology to give the PRC a military edge. China is said to be doing whatever it takes to gain a technological advantage in the world, stealing intellectual property, engaging in industrial espionage, and forcing technology transfer.

China has specifically been drawn towards Israel in its mission of global pre-eminence. Israel has a flourishing sector in emerging technologies like laser optics and augmented and virtual reality. It is one of the world's foremost innovation hubs, with around 4,000 active start-ups, spending 5 per cent of its annual GDP on research and development-the highest in the world.

Israel is very attractive in its combination of highly advanced defence and security-minded tech and research, plus still-weak safeguards. In the past 20 years, China has made 97 percent of its investments in Israel in the technology sector.

The observers say democratic Israel should be cautious about communist China's growing interest in its technological power. Given China's ideology of aggression, its technological innovation beyond a point could prove to be dangerous for the entire free world, including the United States and India, the two nations, with which the Jewish State has had excellent relations in the contemporary world.

Acquiring emerging technologies from Israel might help Beijing access US technology and establish itself as number one power in the world. It is good that US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced in July this year the formation of a mechanism for high-level technology dialogue aimed at safeguarding the shared national interests of the two nations in critical and emerging technologies.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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