Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

Washington Strikes Back Against Chinese Investment

Foreign Policy: In the race to manufacture self-driving vehicles, there is no more important technology than lidar, which uses laser pulses much like radar to map the nearby area in minute detail. It is what lets a car tell the difference between a human leg and a branch. That’s the main reason Chinese internet giant Baidu made a big investment in American lidar specialist Velodyne in 2016.

But the technology isn’t just for civilian cars — it also makes U.S. military applications more lethal.

That Velodyne investment represents exactly the kind of increasingly aggressive Chinese investment to snap up cutting-edge technology that could give Beijing both an economic and a military advantage. And U.S. lawmakers, policymakers, and the Pentagon are all taking notice, desperate to find a way to make sure that China doesn’t vacuum up the technological edge that drives the American economy and gives the United States a military edge — for now. Similar alarm bells are ringing in Europe, with several countries scrambling to find ways to screen Chinese investment in high technology and critical infrastructure.

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