Democratic Candidates Target China for Intellectual Property Theft

Telecom and tech issues weren’t discussed in Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate, but a few candidates targeted China for stealing U.S. intellectual property. China steals “our products, including our intellectual property,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. “They dump substandard products into our economy. They need to be held accountable.” The problem with China isn’t the trade deficit, but that it’s stealing IP and violating World Trade Organization rules, said ex-Vice President Joe Biden. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang said an executive friend visited China recently and “saw pirated U.S. intellectual property on worker workstations to the tune of thousands of dollars per head.” The friend asked how American workers can compete with that, Yang said, citing lost American revenue.