Wyden Calls for Investigation and Action on China’s Forced Tech Transfer Policies

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, today called on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to investigate China’s forced technology transfer policies and take action to stop China from pressuring U.S. tech manufacturers to sacrifice intellectual property as a cost of doing business in China.

In a letter to Lighthizer, Wyden said China’s policies on forced technology transfer are among the key challenges American innovators face in competing with Chinese tech manufacturers.

“As part of its broader national strategy to become a leader in the manufacture of high-technology products, China places significant limitations on U.S. firms’ ability to compete through a host of mercantilist policies designed to impede U.S. firms attempting to operate in China and co-opt U.S. technology,” Wyden wrote.

“It appears that the Administration has been unable to make progress on these issues in dialogues with China, including as part of the Comprehensive Economic Dialogue the Administration launched with China this year. Therefore, I urge appropriate additional steps be taken promptly to counter China’s attempts to strong-arm U.S. innovators into giving up their intellectual property and drive U.S. firms further out of the Chinese market,” he wrote.

Read today’s letter here.

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