Dabbar urges US to cut dependence on China in key tech areas

America must re-industrialise and cut its reliance on China in critical technologies such as semiconductors, 6G and quantum computing, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of commerce told senators.

Paul Dabbar’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation came as bipartisan efforts mount in Washington to limit Beijing’s influence over global supply chains and emerging technologies.

With China expanding its dominance in electric vehicles, telecoms infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, US lawmakers are pressing the Commerce Department to adopt policies that reinforce domestic industry and tech leadership – even if it means pulling back from global integration.

“The accession of China to the WTO was very, very poor for the US economy,” said Dabbar, a former senior energy department official and co-founder of a quantum cybersecurity firm. “We lost about 25 to 30 million jobs in this country as a result.”

Dabbar said the US needed to reframe its trade strategy with China around four goals: national security, re-industrialisation, tariff leverage and revenue.

“When we talk about the PRC”, national security and re-industrialisation are “going to be much more focused as a likely outcome of negotiations”, he testified.

Republicans on the panel echoed that emphasis. US senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the committee’s chairman, said Washington faced a critical test over whether it would lead in the next generation of telecommunications or cede control to Chinese firms.

“If we find ourselves in a world where China and Huawei [Technologies] provide the global architecture for telecommunications, that would do enormous damage to our economic security and our national security,” said Cruz, referring to the mainland telecoms giant.

Dabbar responded by highlighting satellite-based 6G development as a “next competitive battlefield with the PRC”.

In a similar vein of wariness towards Beijing, Democrats pressed Dabbar on how the Commerce Department would manage tensions between innovation and security.

US senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the panel’s senior Democrat, warned that China was “already taking advantage of us in fisheries and satellites” and urged a coherent technology strategy.

“We must lead with science and not allow bureaucratic drift or budget cuts to give China the upper hand,” Cantwell said.

Beyond trade and telecoms, Dabbar spoke of threats in quantum computing, particularly from what he called “harvest now, decrypt later” strategies in which adversaries collect encrypted data with the expectation that future quantum machines will break it.

He believed the US should accelerate efforts in post-quantum cryptography through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency that sets benchmarks for digital security and innovation.

On semiconductors, Dabbar voiced strong support for the Chips and Science Act, a 2022 law that provides more than US$50 billion in subsidies to boost domestic chip manufacturing and reduce dependence on Asia-based suppliers.

Although it passed with bipartisan support in 2022, Trump and some Republicans have since raised concerns about how the money is being spent.

Lawmakers have questioned delays in semiconductor projects and called for greater oversight to ensure that taxpayer subsidies – including more than US$50 billion for chip manufacturing and research – are tied to clear benchmarks and results.

Dabbar pointed to recent Commerce Department work that helped expand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s investment in Arizona as an example of strategic negotiation.

“With no additional chips funding, they went from one fab to three,” the nominee said.

If confirmed, Dabbar would help oversee the department’s role in export controls, industry subsidies and the implementation of major legislation such as the Chips Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping climate and manufacturing package passed in 2022 that includes incentives for clean energy and US-made technologies. South China Morning Post