Commentary Thirty years ago, the United States began to open its doors to China under the “constructive engagement” policy. The hope was to help liberalize China and steer it to be a “stable, open, and non-aggressive” world player, as former President Bill Clinton envisioned. At that time, China’s technology lagged behind the United States’. It was unthinkable then that China would one day become a tech competitor. After three decades of open trade, the United States is waking up to a world in which China seems to be within arm’s length of replacing it as the world’s top tech provider. How did this happen? Of course, the Chinese people’s diligence and intelligence are not to be questioned. However, what truly enabled China’s tech growth is the systematic, state-led and all-out acquisition of U.S. technology, intellectual property (IP), and know-how. As a matter of fact, technology theft from China now costs …