SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA – China’s rampant theft of intellectual property from American institutions and industry must be thwarted as the U.S. battles to remain the world’s economic and military leader – but America cannot completely decouple from the economic behemoth, Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

The key, according to Rounds, is maintaining China as a key trade partner without giving them access to America’s technology, including artificial intelligence and computer chips.

«In doing so, maybe we’ll restrict their ability to actually be able to have a market that they can create their own stuff with. They’ll be using ours. And in using ours, they’ll be our standards,» Rounds told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library during the Reagan National Economic Forum on Friday in California. 

«Let’s not necessarily just totally divest. Let’s see if we can have an influence on them and the rest of the world as well when it comes to standards for AI and other technological advances in the future,» he added. 

Rounds was among the conference panelists who spoke on the threats China poses as President Donald Trump addresses the country’s chronic trade deficit with foreign nations, and his optimism for the future as the U.S. sprints to remain the world’s economic and military leader. 

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Rounds’ remarks focused on keeping the U.S. in the driver’s seat of the world’s economy, which he explained is deeply entwined in technological advances and bucking Chinese theft of intellectual property, while also acknowledging and combating how China has advanced into a «near-peer competitor» with the U.S. from a military standpoint. 

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«We’ve got to do a better job of protecting the intellectual properties that we’ve got. The most advanced types of technologies that we have, everything we can do to slow down their connection with that, protecting against that infiltration or de-filtration of really good information that, right now, they’re stealing from us on a regular basis,» Rounds said during a panel called «China and the U.S.: When Trading Partners are also Great Power Competitors.»

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. (Fox News Digital )

He added that China has no qualms about stealing U.S. intellectual property – which is understood as intangible creations, such as patents for inventions or trade secrets such as tech algorithms. Rounds recalled a recent conversation with an ambassador to China who told him their culture does not understand «how someone can own an idea.»

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last Wednesday that the U.S. will begin «aggressively» revoking visas of Chinese students, most notably those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party who are trained at U.S. schools, but return to China or feed U.S. information to China. 

China has stolen billions in intellectual property on an annual basis, Sen. Mike Rounds says. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Rounds said the country needed a pause on admitting Chinese nationals with CCP ties into elite U.S. schools until an enforceable agreement is in place protecting intellectual property and processes from Chinese capture. 

«We have Chinese students that come in here, and then they [maintain] ties back home. And even if they want to stay here, one of the challenges we have is that their family may very well be coerced into requiring them to come back home again. And if that’s the case, any of the knowledge that we’ve helped them to develop here goes back home with them,» Rounds said. 

«Until such time as we’re able to address that, and until such time as we’re able to be assured that the information that they’re getting here, the data that they are catching here, the knowledge that they gain here isn’t going to be used against our young men and women in the future, we want to slow this down a little bit. Let’s just take a break. Let’s not be bringing in these Chinese students that have ties with the Chinese Communist Party, until we have some kind of agreement in place that is enforceable,» he said. 

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds was a panelist for the inaugural Reagan National Economic Forum in California. (Fox News Digital )

Rounds explained during the Reagan library forum that protecting U.S. intellectual property from Chinese theft has a ripple effect on U.S. efforts to remain the world’s military leader as China seeks parity with America. 

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«[China is] a strategic challenger for us on the military side. They are a near-peer competitor. And they have an advantage over us in one particular way: They are unified in terms of when Xi Jinping wants to move, it’s not just the government that moves, but the entire rest of their economic activity is required to move the way that he wants them to move. We don’t have that here. And so for us, we have to recognize that challenge. Now, I’m not suggesting we go the direction that they go, but we have to recognize their ability to move very, very quickly,» he said. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping listens during a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 14. (AP/Minh Hoang)

The Trump administration leveled tariffs as high as 145% on Chinese goods in April, and China retaliated against the president’s «Liberation Day» policies with tariffs of its own. China and the U.S. reached a preliminary trade agreement last month, which Trump said China violated in a Truth Social post on Friday. 

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«I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!» he wrote. 

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, Feb. 6, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Rounds explained that the U.S. is in the midst of reaching a favorable trade deal while also acknowledging China has stolen billions of dollars in intellectual property for its own advantage. 

«We do, right now, really close to about a half a trillion dollars a year in economic activity with China today, but they steal about $600 billion in intellectual property on an annual basis. And so we have this dichotomy of trying to do good trade and at the same time recognizing that they’re stealing our property,» he said. 

Rounds said the floodgates of accepting and leveraging AI have not yet opened in the U.S., as many Americans are still hesitant to trust the technology. In mere months and years, however, he said the health industry will see massive overhauls, aided by tech that can quickly identify cancer or diagnose diabetes and Alzheimer’s. This will lead American culture to accept AI and rally the private sector’s proliferation of it, he said.

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«I think what the American people want to see is, what’s in it for them? What improves their quality of life? I think one of the most critical issues – that would really be one of the easiest to get into – is talking about health care. And I firmly believe that Americans will see AI as a benefit to them rather than as a challenge when we start to see cures for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancers. And those are all within reach,» Rounds told Fox Digital. 

Rounds added during the forum that when Americans personally feel how their quality of life has improved due to AI, «that’s when we’ll really see the push across the country to develop AI at a rate that you’ve never seen before by the private sector, as well.»

«That’s what’s going to keep us ahead of China,» he said. 

Red flags flutter in front of the Great Hall of the People on March 4, 2022, in Beijing, China. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

The forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which is nestled in California’s Santa Susana Mountains and the Simi Hills, kicked off on Thursday evening, and featured more than a dozen discussions and panels focused on the economy, artificial intelligence, U.S. defense strategies, the energy sector and more across Friday. Banking leader Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin were among those who joined Rounds in addressing the nation’s economic health. 

The Reagan library’s retired Air Force One jet is showcased in a pavilion. (Fox News Digital)

«The Reagan Library does an excellent job working on defense issues, and now they’ve also opened up a seminar basically working on economic issues critical to the United States. And so to come in here and to work with other people that care about the economic well-being of our country, this is an excellent place to do it.… So it’s an opportunity for me to really learn what’s going on and what other people are thinking about our economy in general,» Rounds told Fox Digital of the forum. 

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A statue of the former president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The conference comes as the Senate works to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, which is a sweeping multitrillion-dollar piece of legislation that advances Trump’s agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. Rounds said the legislation must pass or Americans will see their taxes spike. 

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«We don’t have a choice. We have to pass the bill to get the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act back in place on a permanent basis. If we don’t do that, the average American family is going to see about a $2,400 a year increase in their taxes. So we have to do something. And it’s critical that we pass this bill. We’re going to work with the House. We’re gonna get this deal done. The Senate will put their mark of approval on it, but nonetheless, we want to do everything we can as quickly as we can to take care of this so that we can get on to other things. The president has made it very clear he wants to get this done. We want to help in that regard. This is our job,» he said.