This might sound a lot like conspiracy theory. If so, ignore the summary and just read the strategies listed below it. Then go back and read the summary.
Summary
The US is in a war with China. Right now. The only reason we don't realize it is that we're used to wars being fought with guns and bombs, while the Chinese are also willing and able to take other approaches. Why expend life defeating an enemy when you can achieve a better result by economically crippling the enemy?
If your enemy makes money by creating and selling technology, then steal their technology, market a cheaper copy short-term and a better product long-term, and defeat them at their own capitalist game. Once their technology corporations can no longer compete with you, your enemy will be forced to get their technology from you and will be under your economic and military control.
If your enemy is strong because they can grow a lot of food cheaply, then soften the market for food, cheaply buy the land they use to grow food, and make the capability yours. Let your enemy spend money on infrastructure, legislation, regulation, etc. Just keep the land, and when your enemy is too weak to fight back, it won't matter that the land resides inside their borders. You will control your enemy's food supply, and through it their economy and military.
If your enemy depends on a resource that they need to import (oil), corner the market on that import. Make friends with countries that have large quantities of the resource. Build things for them. Offer them trading concessions. Support them at the UN. Then slowly turn off the resource spigot for your enemy. Your enemy will be at your mercy to acquire their precious imported resource.
Technology: China has stated an intention of manufacturing CPUs by 2020. Combine the fact that they can dump billions of R&D into this with the possibility (fact?) that they have already stolen key IP from Intel, AMD, and countless american universities, and this becomes a very realistic possibility.
Food: Chinese are buying plots of agricultural land across the primary growing regions in the US. Whether it is individual corporations or China doesn't matter, because in China, all corporations ARE China.
Oil: China has been busy building bridges - literally - with as many resource-laden countries as possible. They have been buying up export contracts from oil-producing countries to the point that some other countries are no longer able to get the resource quantities they used to get - or need.
As far as the article is concerned, there is ultimately a question of respect here. China is stealing IP wholesale from the US, because China believes that any resulting consequences are going to be outweighed by the benefits. China does not respect demands from the US to respect and enforce intellectual property rights. Why not? Is it because they do not believe we will eventually retaliate? Or is it because they believe that by the time we decide we want to do something to retaliate in a way that would hurt China, we will no longer be able to do so?
/end conspiracy theory