The U.S. and European countries like Germany have strong science foundations that China has not caught up to yet. In China, research is still under political control despite some loosening in recent years. So what Smith wants is what the Chinese are doing, which is about as stupid as a government can get. (For the record, the Chinese are very good at reverse engineering but it will be awhile before they lead in science if tight political control continues. Putin, incidentally, has been playing political games with Russian science, and also cutting funding for political reasons.)
Smith and his friends are helping wealthy oligarchs who want to maintain monopolistic privileges and behavior. Smith’s behavior has nothing to do with maintaining high quality science in the United States.