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How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

wsj.com

31–40 of 266 posts

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#31
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forbidding that practice will simply mean that you won't be doing any more business in China. Which is fine with me. It's just that CEOs that see a virgin population of over a billion consumers for their widgets can't help themselves and will agree to just about anything to be able to tap that market before their competition does.

I support reducing trade with china. The need for cheap goods comes with a long tail price tag. It needs to be discussed more. Many Chinese workers are in severe poverty and strengthening Chinese businesses seems to only fuel inequality.

I agree with you that we need to be much more careful and rigorous before trading with China, but China's market-based growth since Xiaoping's reforms are the reason hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens are out of poverty now.

It is the new turn to geopolitical hegemony and debt entrapment that we should be careful of, not the incredible influx of wealth that has (wonderfully!) gone to the Chinese lower classes.

Free trade, and the US leading the world charge to open up to China, is the best thing that happened to Chinese citizens.

Things are different now that the state has such an iron grip, and its own intentions, however.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#32

Not really off tangent: I won't be surprised if this attracts lots of comments along the lines "US/ WESTERN COUNTRIES did this before too and therefore no better than China". I just can't understand why when it comes to geopolitics, HN just can't keep the discussion related to the submission? Somehow US/ western countries have to enter the discussion as a bad benchmark...

No-one has yet, but what's the problem with it? America stole Britain's intellectual property for a leg up a century or two ago, now a different country is doing it to them. It's just the normal cycle, and America have long had a lot of artificial legal protections in place to try and stop it and limit the rest of the world's prosperity. The harsh copyright laws and IP agreements they've bullied the rest of the world…

America stole Britain's intellectual property for a leg up a century or two ago, now a different country is doing it to them.

There's a difference between copying from open source patent database and reverse engineering versus blatantly engaging in industrial espionage, which is a whole another kettle of fish.

Or claiming to be playing by the same set of rules but blatantly violating them.

The harsh copyright laws and IP agreements they've bullied the rest of the world into accepting are beginning to fail, and these sort of articles are a direct consequence of that, why wouldn't we discuss it? It's an intellectually interesting effect.

Patent systems should be considered harmful to nations that enforce or implement them, but that's another story for another day.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems they activate the paywall after a post gets traction. Because there was none before.

Easy bypass is to run it through a url shortener, and then outline.com. Works for NYT as well, and most others.

NYT can be bypassed using Reader View, but the WSJ seems to be able to disable it.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#34

Not really off tangent: I won't be surprised if this attracts lots of comments along the lines "US/ WESTERN COUNTRIES did this before too and therefore no better than China". I just can't understand why when it comes to geopolitics, HN just can't keep the discussion related to the submission? Somehow US/ western countries have to enter the discussion as a bad benchmark...

I don't understand how this is surprising or why this is a bad thing. Comparing a country's actions to ethical ideals is great, but it is subjective and does not achieve much. The only realistic benchmark is to compare one country to another.

There is also the aspect of hypocrisy that leaves a bad taste. Putin criticizing the lack of black rights in the US is just as hypocritical as the US claiming to take military action to promote democracy.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I support reducing trade with china. The need for cheap goods comes with a long tail price tag. It needs to be discussed more. Many Chinese workers are in severe poverty and strengthening Chinese businesses seems to only fuel inequality.

Free trade with China has vastly improved Chinese workers living standards. Those rural jobs from the Cultural Revolution were actual poverty, and physically dangerous to boot.

who cares? not our problem.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#36
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forbidding that practice will simply mean that you won't be doing any more business in China. Which is fine with me. It's just that CEOs that see a virgin population of over a billion consumers for their widgets can't help themselves and will agree to just about anything to be able to tap that market before their competition does.

The agreement needs to be reciprocal. China should have to jump through the same hoops if it wants to do business in the US, UK, Australia, etc And not just for doing business either, things like home ownership too. If I cannot buy a house in China (not that I'd want to pay for a Chinese house that'll last 5 years max) because I'm not Chinese then they should not be allowed buy in my country either. Vancouver, Toront…

> The agreement needs to be reciprocal. China should have to jump through the same hoops if it wants to do business in the US, UK, Australia, etc

Then deal with the woke cries of xenophobia.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#37
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the shortsightedness of chasing short term profits for the investors rather than a more sustainable approach of not handing over the reins to a less than trustworthy partner. I'm genuinely curious for how many companies did this short term bump in profits outweigh the long term loss by irretrievably handing over technology, business strategies, etc. Edit for the comment below. > legally obliged to maximise sh…

Aren't CEO's kind of legally obliged to maximise shareholder value, so they have to do the deal with the devil?

A common misconception.

“Modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not.”: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-co...

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#38
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the shortsightedness of chasing short term profits for the investors rather than a more sustainable approach of not handing over the reins to a less than trustworthy partner. I'm genuinely curious for how many companies did this short term bump in profits outweigh the long term loss by irretrievably handing over technology, business strategies, etc. Edit for the comment below. > legally obliged to maximise sh…

Aren't CEO's kind of legally obliged to maximise shareholder value, so they have to do the deal with the devil?

Why do we see this thing over-and-over-and-over again? It isn't true. It never was. Stop repeating it.

Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company

#40

The scale of their IP theft is incredible. The CFO survey said it is happening to 1 in 5 US corporations, which is incredible if you think about it - but the trouble is the scale is larger than that, when you include what they steal via surveillance too. I can't see an answer outside of decoupling, seeing as they're set on their path and proud of it. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/1-in-5-companies-say-china-s...

>I can't see an answer outside of decoupling

Maybe stop relying on IP as your business strategy ? Always be innovating so that you always be one step ahead those who copying.

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