China ‘compressing’ technology gains: US intel official

A robot, center right, transports boxes of finished products as employees work on the assembly line of a Huawei Technologies Co. mobile phone plant in Dongguan, China, on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. Ren Zhengfei, the billionaire founder of Huawei, broke years of public silence to dismiss U.S. accusations the telecoms giant helps Beijing spy on Western governments and to praise Donald Trump for his tax cuts. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: China is making technological advances in a far shorter timeframe than it took the United States, rapidly narrowing the gap between the two countries, a senior US intelligence official said Jan 22. 

Reaping the benefits of sending tens of thousands of students and researchers to the United States, and a determined policy to buy and steal US technology, Beijing has “compressed the timeframe” for catching up, and now has “remarkable” capabilities, the official told journalists on condition of anonymity.