Finally, America has leadership in our competition with the People's Republic of China.
In less than a month in office, President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on steel imports to counteract Beijing's subsidies that undercut American firms playing by the rules. He appointed CIA Director John Radcliffe, whom The Wall Street Journal reported believes "China is the greatest long-term threat facing the U.S."
Few will forget the infamous Chinese spy balloon that crossed the North American continent before being shot down by a military aircraft off the coast of South Carolina. This week, we learned that the balloon was equipped with U.S.-made technology, sparking experts to investigate whether it was stolen by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or acquired through commercially available equipment that can be sold or resold to America's adversaries.
This revelation underscores the urgent need for strong measures to protect American technology and prevent the CCP from exploiting commercial channels to advance its strategic ambitions, whether intentionally or not indirectly.
And on TikTok, early this month, Trump tasked Vice President J.D. Vance and national security adviser Michael Waltz "to oversee a congressionally mandated potential deal between Chinese-based owner ByteDance and an American entity," reported NBC News. This is crucial.
As I detailed last month on Newsmax, ByteDance maintains an internal CCP committee, which means "the implications of their level of involvement with the party are extremely concerning."
Then there's DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence company that shocked the tech financial markets with its efficiency compared to OpenAI and other American firms. Trump called it "a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win."
A key tactic in our battle with China must be making our national security-sensitive tech sectors more competitive with China — because currently, they're trailing far behind.
One Chinese firm, Huawei, which is banned in the U.S. due to security concerns, currently holds 30% of the global 5G and telecommunications equipment market share. By contrast, no American firm even cracks the double digits.
National security leaders fear that China's 5G and telecom technology contain backdoors, which could allow the CCP to shut down or disrupt services in a crisis, launch cyberattacks through hidden vulnerabilities, and monitor military or government communications.
This can't continue; 5G networks are the backbone of modern economies, supporting everything from military communications to power grids.
The Trump administration understands the importance of AI to America's national security.
On Feb. 11 at the Paris AI Summit of world leaders and tech executives, Vance emphasized the need for American global dexterity, warning of overregulation that "deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball." However, if we lose the global 5G and telecom battle, it won't matter who controls AI — because AI will travel through China's networks.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing spoke of setting up global AI rules — of course, to benefit Beijing. As The Associated Press reported, China "is playing both sides: pushing for control at home while promoting open-source AI abroad."
The U.S. cannot afford for this to happen.
Unfortunately, bureaucrats within the government don't seem to share the Trump administration's recognition of the need to curtail China's dominance in this area.
For example, on Jan. 30, the Justice Department — which, at the time, was not yet led by Trump nominees Pam Bondi and Gail Slater — brought an antitrust action to prevent two of China's U.S. telecom rivals, HPE and Juniper, from merging. This combination of resources would have given the U.S. more weight to push back against China's tech dominance.
Unfortunately, regulators within the DOJ who are ideologically opposed to market consolidation — regardless of the consumer and national security benefits — blocked the deal anyway.
We're not talking about predatory Big Tech companies or anti-competitive pharmaceutical goliaths. We are talking about two routine businesses that possess the skills needed to protect America's defense interests.
The Biden administration also weakened U.S. leverage by failing to enforce key semiconductor restrictions on China.
Although the CHIPS and Science Act was intended to limit China's access to cutting-edge semiconductor technology, multiple reports have indicated that Chinese companies, including Huawei, are still obtaining advanced chips through loopholes and indirect supply chains. Instead of taking decisive action, Biden's Commerce Department delayed stronger enforcement, allowing China to narrow the technological gap.
If the U.S. wants more incidents like the Chinese spy balloon, it should keep all these weak enforcement and bureaucratic roadblocks intact. But if it wants to reassert dominance over China and protect global stability, then it must adopt a bold and aggressive strategy to regain its technological edge.
Trump, Vance, and their team understand the urgency of what's at stake.
But time is running out. Their administration must act fast — before China secures an irreversible lead in the technologies that will define the future.
We're all cheering them on.
Horace Cooper is an author and legal commentator. His most recent book is "Put Y'all Back in Chains: How Joe Biden's Policies Hurt Black Americans" Read Horace Cooper's Reports — More Here.
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