About three years ago, the Chinese government introduced an economic plan, Made in China 2025. The goal was for China to elevate itself from a middle-income country to a high-income country, upgrading its domestic companies so that they can compete with the most technologically advanced companies in the world. This meant reducing China's reliance on importing certain high-tech goods from abroad, including from the United States.

But in order to increase its technological capabilities, China has to first acquire the technologies that its companies need to compete. And the way that China has gone about acquiring those technologies is at the heart of its trade disputes with the US.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.


Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.

Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

300x250 Ad

300x250 Ad

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

Donate