US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Friday said America's eyes were wide open to the fact that China was explicitly trying to get access to American technology for use in its military. She said, "We need to protect ourselves and our allies, and partners from that happening."

Responding to a query on the US push towards tech decoupling with China and what role will India play in the global semiconductor supply chain and broader US efforts to decouple from China, the US commerce secretary said, "We see India as a trusted technology partner and we want to continue to deepen our technological relationship with India. In fact, we recently launched the iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies) for critical and emerging technology with India and we hope to work more closely with India in the private sector here around those technologies."

After this, Raimondo clarified, "I want to be also clear that the United States does not seek to decouple from China nor do we seek a technological decoupling from China. What we seek to do is ensure that certain technologies where the United States is ahead, and where China's explicit strategy is to have these technologies and deploy them in the Chinese military apparatus."

"Those are technologies that we have used export controls to ban the sale of to China. So, we enjoy trade with China... So this isn't about decoupling. What it is about, though, is being eyes wide open to the fact that China is explicitly trying to get access to American technology for use in its military. We need to protect ourselves, our allies and partners from that happening," Raimondo said.