I'm reading a book named Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology.

When I reading below paragraph：

Jerry Sanders : Founder and CEO of AMD; Silicon Valley’s most flamboyant salesman; an aggressive critic of what he saw as unfair Japanese trade practices in the 1980s.

I want to accurate understand what meaning of "as" at here, so I look dictionary at Cambridge Dictionary.

It seems that interpret "as" to "because" is better. Is it right?

In addition I fonud "aggressive" may used as "ANGRY" at Cambridge Dictionary

But see above picture the target of action is "another people". So how to understand "aggressive"?