A potential trade deal between the United States and China must be one that allows for the protection of the United States' intellectual property, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday.
"We have to protect the intellectual property to stay ahead of everybody else," the California Republican told Fox Business' "Mornings with Maria." "I believe China is at a point where they'll want to do this. Their economy is changing."
McCarthy said there are "certain things" the Chinese are doing that are done better than in the United States, so China will want to protect their own intellectual property as well through any deal.
Meanwhile, there is the issue of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which has done many questionable things, including selling technology to Iran while the United States had sanctions enacted there.
Huawei, being a Chinese company, is under the control of the Communist Party and has components that are involved in many devices worldwide, meaning China can extract data.
China gives countries discounts on the technology, said McCarthy, and eventually, information has been stolen not only from governments but through individual businesses.
The United States should have gone after China years ago, he added.
"All the innovation we've made in America, they've never made the investment in it," said McCarthy. "They've stolen it from us."