It seems that Mr. Saleen has suffered the same fate that my electric car company suffered in 2010. After promising us a partnership, his only intention was to obtain the technology and the secrets, at that time one of the few complete EV powertrains on the market. As soon as the contracts were signed and the technology was evaluated, two separate companies were set up based on the same technology.I have to say that t…
How is this downvoted to oblivion 5 minutes after posting?
How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
41–50 of 266 posts
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#42The 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...
Sounds impressive, then you read the article and realize they surveyed 23 companies in total. I don’t even know what’s 1 in 5 in that context. Four? Five?
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#43Not 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 do find it funny how HN used to really bemoan the strict IP laws of the US, especially when it comes to software or medicine.... but if it's China getting around those laws then boo them.
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#44It seems he fell into a classic trap, the Chinese partner never intended to make cars, as the only product they ever produced is a Smart-like "mini-four-wheel-car", which was itself stolen from an HK student design.
So the plan is quite apparent, the Chinese partner just wanted his reputation and brand recognition, in exchange for promised access to the China market, to leverage huge land quota (state controlled lucrative resource, highly coveted) and bank/government loans. It never planed to make any real cars, it's just a capital play to game and profit off of the system, like pennies for grands.
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#45The article gives several possible ways to improve the situation. However, one critical way is missing imho: China forces foreign investment to always come in the form of a joint venture with a Chinese company. This practice needs to be forbidden or heavily penalized in all future trade agreements and similar international contracts.
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.
>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.
Isn't that the point of forbidding it? You can't enter the market, but neither can your competitor, so there's no FOMO.
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#46It seems he fell into a classic trap, the Chinese partner never intended to make cars, as the only product they ever produced is a Smart-like "mini-four-wheel-car", which was itself stolen from an HK student design. So the plan is quite apparent, the Chinese partner just wanted his reputation and brand recognition, in exchange for promised access to the China market, to leverage huge land quota (state controlled lucr…
Relevant news coverage in Chinese: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#47Not 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...
Because before giving lessons to others you should be irreproachable.
What would you think of Dijkstra if you suddenly discovered that he still wrote goto infested spaghetti code after his notorious "Go To Statement Considered Harmful" paper ?
So yes we should criticize China as the bad actor that it is, but let's not forget that the western world is hardly an example (a good one I mean ;)
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#48The article gives several possible ways to improve the situation. However, one critical way is missing imho: China forces foreign investment to always come in the form of a joint venture with a Chinese company. This practice needs to be forbidden or heavily penalized in all future trade agreements and similar international contracts.
Or reciprocated.
Chinese citizens have invested a ton in US businesses, which is sort of okay. They also bought a ton of land in the US, which led to skyrocketing housing prices, and in the long term, if it continues unabated, will lead to the US paying tribute to China in the form of rents on US land. There is no upside to this. We got cheap Chinese plastic trinkets. They got our real estate. Didn't we do this to the indigenous people here once ourselves?
To be clear: I'm not opposed to being able to buy foreign land per se, but I am opposed to how one-sided this is. For the most part, US entities can't really own real estate in China (and even with Chinese entities, it's complex, but that's another story).
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#49Not 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 do find it funny how HN used to really bemoan the strict IP laws of the US, especially when it comes to software or medicine.... but if it's China getting around those laws then boo them.
Strong arming a high school kid for pointing out an obvious security flaw is a little different than "disappearing" millions of uighur people. You probably aren't even allowed to read that.
Re: How Chinese Officials Hijacked My Company
#50The 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.
In this context, IP includes trade secrets, industry know-how, and human expertise. Strip away the IP, and only inventory and manual labor is left.