Rubio Warns US Must Innovate to Counter China's IP Theft Before China Summit

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday that the United States must stay ahead of the curve on innovation to counter China's intellectual property theft. He argued that Beijing has used stolen American technology to drive its progress.

"A lot of the advancements you've seen in the commercial sector and the industrial sector, the technological sector in China, is a product of intellectual property theft and/or reverse engineering, which is the same thing, of our own technology," Rubio said. "That has to be addressed."

In an exclusive interview on Hannity, Rubio described intellectual property theft as an enormous issue that the Trump administration plans to confront in Thursday's high-stakes talks with China.

"We're not trying to constrain China, but their rise cannot come at our expense. Their rise cannot come at our fall," Rubio said.

He insisted that his warning only scratches the surface and stressed that enforcement alone won't be enough. America's long-term advantage depends on outpacing China in innovation.

"One thing is, if you're stealing or taking the stuff that was cutting edge five years ago, but the things that are going to be cutting edge years from now, we've got to continue to invest and push our companies to continue to stay ahead of that pace of theft and continue to lead the world in innovation,"

Rubio's remarks came ahead of meetings in China. President Donald Trump, several key members of his administration and multiple U.S. business leaders were slated to participate in a summit to discuss trade, artificial intelligence and more.

"They believe they will be the world's most powerful country, they'll surpass the United States, and they have a plan to do it. And they're executing on that plan," Rubio said. "We, on the other hand, don't view it that way."