Editorial Board

Dealing With China’s High-Tech Ambitions

China’s aspirations aren’t the problem. Its methods are.

When does competition become a danger?

Photographer: Zhang Bin/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s handling of the trade relationship with China poses a threat both to the U.S. and to the world economy — but even his harshest critics agree with him on one thing. China’s bid to dominate the high-tech industries of the future often bends or breaks the rules of liberal international commerce, and needs to be checked.

What’s important, and what this administration finds so difficult, is to be smart about it.