Fraud Charges, Lost Patents: How an Auto Legend's China Venture Crashed (yahoo.com) 122
"Steve Saleen claims that China has stolen 40 years' worth of intellectual property from him in launching the Saleen brand in China," reports the site Carscoops.
More information from the Los Angeles Times: Saleen's Chinese backers have accused his business partner of fraud and embezzlement and taken over the company, freezing its accounts and forcing hundreds of employees out of work. Police raided the sprawling new factory emblazoned with Saleen's name. Two senior executives were detained, and a court order sealed its Shanghai showroom... "What I'm trying to do is to bring to light how American companies will contribute IP, brands and knowhow to the China market — and overnight they will change direction, kick you out and keep the IP," Saleen said...
Whatever the outcome, Saleen's bid to bring his high-powered cars to China has crashed, leaving the 71-year-old filled with regret. "When it came to taking my brand on a global basis, it really seemed to offer me an opportunity that I could not refuse," Saleen said. "In hindsight I realize the deal was too good to be true...." Saleen said his experience should convince Washington to enact tougher protections for U.S. investors, deny Chinese firms that steal trade secrets access to capital markets and prohibit the use of Chinese asset valuations that could be subject to manipulation.
Carscoops has some more background: Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Saleen claims "the deal was a sham." According to the racing legend, the joint venture applied for 510 Chinese patents based on his designs, technologies, trade secrets and engineering developments. He adds that most of these patent filings didn't list him as an inventor. The company, known as Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technologies (JSAT), unveiled a range of models 12 months ago.
Saleen asserts that the government of Rugao is attempting to take over the joint venture now that it has his intellectual property and patents. He claims that the director of corporate affairs for JSAT, Grace Yin Xu, has been missing since June 22 when she entered a government building shortly after refusing to lie to local law enforcement who wanted her to state Saleen's business partner had provided false information and embezzled money. In addition, the company's vice president of manufacturing, Frank Sterzer, was allegedly detained for six hours by the authorities.
In his op-ed, Saleen states that "China can no longer go unchecked", citing a 2019 survey that 20 per cent of North American corporations say the People's Republic has stolen their intellectual property in the past year.
More information from the Los Angeles Times: Saleen's Chinese backers have accused his business partner of fraud and embezzlement and taken over the company, freezing its accounts and forcing hundreds of employees out of work. Police raided the sprawling new factory emblazoned with Saleen's name. Two senior executives were detained, and a court order sealed its Shanghai showroom... "What I'm trying to do is to bring to light how American companies will contribute IP, brands and knowhow to the China market — and overnight they will change direction, kick you out and keep the IP," Saleen said...
Whatever the outcome, Saleen's bid to bring his high-powered cars to China has crashed, leaving the 71-year-old filled with regret. "When it came to taking my brand on a global basis, it really seemed to offer me an opportunity that I could not refuse," Saleen said. "In hindsight I realize the deal was too good to be true...." Saleen said his experience should convince Washington to enact tougher protections for U.S. investors, deny Chinese firms that steal trade secrets access to capital markets and prohibit the use of Chinese asset valuations that could be subject to manipulation.
Carscoops has some more background: Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Saleen claims "the deal was a sham." According to the racing legend, the joint venture applied for 510 Chinese patents based on his designs, technologies, trade secrets and engineering developments. He adds that most of these patent filings didn't list him as an inventor. The company, known as Jiangsu Saleen Automotive Technologies (JSAT), unveiled a range of models 12 months ago.
Saleen asserts that the government of Rugao is attempting to take over the joint venture now that it has his intellectual property and patents. He claims that the director of corporate affairs for JSAT, Grace Yin Xu, has been missing since June 22 when she entered a government building shortly after refusing to lie to local law enforcement who wanted her to state Saleen's business partner had provided false information and embezzled money. In addition, the company's vice president of manufacturing, Frank Sterzer, was allegedly detained for six hours by the authorities.
In his op-ed, Saleen states that "China can no longer go unchecked", citing a 2019 survey that 20 per cent of North American corporations say the People's Republic has stolen their intellectual property in the past year.
You're surprised? (Score:5, Interesting)
How long have American companies been doing business in China and how long have they been raising these same concerns? How many companies have been taken away by some fake pretense yet American companies keep going back for more?
It's almost as if they value money more than their "intellectual property" and are too stupid to just not do business in that country.
At this point I have no sympathy for these companies. You knew going in this was a possibility, you knew going in what you'd be subject to, you knew the Chinese government could take your ideas and yet, you went anyway.
Re:You're surprised? (Score:5, Funny)
LOL thanks, I came here for the whataboutism and wasn't disappointed.
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LOL thanks, I came here for the whataboutism and wasn't disappointed.
I was kind of expecting somebody to show up contending 'it's all the other guy's fault' and here you are. I've witnessed enough neighbourly quarrels to know that whenever there's picket fence feud like this going on somewhere its always both parties' fault and that scales to international relations. I can only re-iterate my previous observation. Both you in the USA and the Chinese have to overcome hour victimhood complexes, stop throwing your turds at each other and talk to resolve this. Blaming the other g
More like robber barons among themselves (Score:1)
China has been doing that kind of exploitation for a while, and to me it seems more rational strategy than some guy with a victimhood complex.
Now I'm not sure about Trump personally, but the USA as nation have a history of arbitrary sanctions against business activities they dislikee. Different context but same level of ruthlessness. For instance there are the sanctions over the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. Some of them against German companies, while Germany is supposed to be an ally.
I don't trust either Ch
Re:You're surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I would say this is just not China doing the same thing as the U.S., because the U.S. is a nation of mostly independent corporations doing stupid and sometimes ruthless things on their own, or in small groups, where China is more monolithic, and their actions are more intelligent and premeditated. U.S. companies that fall for this are victims of their own desperation. The lesson here should be, "Don't be naive and stupid and trust the Chinese", and maybe it would be fair to tack on "Don't trust anyone, because other companies in other countries do it", but with the note that China is much more advanced and coordinated at this kind of thing. Just spouting off about how the U.S. did stupid thing A is either going for cheap mod points and/or pushing an agenda.
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I.e.: they we
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They're forced to divest their US operations, which given the speed will incur losses.
Not quite the same as taking away shit wholesale ... which is not to say that happened. This is almost certainly got more to do with the ton of leverage used to finance that factory and showroom, leverage now turning sour due to Corona. The capital investment is worth a lot more than the IP AFAICS.
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Now, they are trying to force their way to stay here and have their software in India, America, and the west. Personally, I would say that TikTok had a better situation than Saleen did.
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Enterpreneur's Business Venture Fails, Blames China Instead
Not saying that that's what happened, but I'm going to wait a bit before I decide where blame lies. From the he-said/she-said reports it sounds more like he overextended himself and the whole thing collapsed in acrimony, which is unfortunately all too common. If it wasn't for the China angle, it'd be just another failed business venture.
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POTUS accuses them [Tik Tok] of espionage without offering a shred of proof.
Except there is proof, and the back doors in Tik Tok apps are documented and well known.
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Except there is proof
Trump is making assertions without evidence.
You defend him by making an assertion without evidence.
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Microsoft doesn't have their nose "buried between Trumps butt cheeks".
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If well known backdoors are a reason to ban software then American companies are in big trouble.
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As well they should be. If American tech companies want to sell hardware or software overseas, they should be scrubbed of backdoors completely. If the NSA needs to learn a few hard lessons, then so be it.
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Does the proof consist of a claim by an unnamed official?
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Facebook and Google do share information with the US Government.
Chuck Schumer isn't president, yet (Score:3)
Just FYI -
Chuck Schumer, who launched the whole Tik Tok review, isn't president. He's the minority leader of the Senate - the head Democrat in the Senate. He might be president in 5 years, but he isn't yet.
He and Senator Cotton asked the administration for the review after Bytedance violated the terms of their purchase of Tik Tok.
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Chuck Schumer, who launched the whole Tik Tok review, isn't president. He's the minority leader of the Senate - the head Democrat in the Senate. He might be president in 5 years, but he isn't yet.
He and Senator Cotton asked the administration for the review after Bytedance violated the terms of their purchase of Tik Tok.
Just FYI - Donald Trump who is president sure hijacked the Tik Tok review quickly enough for his agenda when he realised he could profit from it. As for that if-not-trumpkin-then-democrat logic you've got going there, I despise Chuck Schumer only marginally less than Trump.
Not the same at all (Score:4, Interesting)
Total apples & oranges:
1. Saleen was a manufacturer of a physical product, Tik Tok is a facilitator of communication with no physical product.
2. Saleen had IP (whether properly valued etc not relavent to this comparison), Tik Tok is not in possession of any unique IP and none is being stolen.
3. Saleen is having it's property stolen. Tik Tok is simply being told to go home to the China mothership. All the talk about a US firm buying it is with the proposed purchase being used as a go-around to allow them to keep operating in the USA.
4. Saleen is not alleged to have any ties to the spy agencies of a foreign government hostile to China. Tik Tok has, by definition, direct ties to the spy agencies of the hostile Chinese dictatorship (which defines itself as communist, and therefore has no separation between the ruling party, the courts and police, the military, the spy agencies, and the so-called "businesses").
Again, with Tik Tok, no intellectual property is being seized at all - the "business" it's simply being told it cannot operate in this country as-is due to its ties to a hostile totalitarian dictatorship. Tik Tok can freely go home to China. It's ties to China's military and spy agencies are the problem. The "owners" have simply been told that if they wish to extract value from their American activities they are free to do so by selling off the US activities to any operator NOT tied to the Chinese communist party. This is not in any way like what's involved in the car situation.
All of that said, an old proverb comes to mind: "a fool and his money are soon parted". It takes a certain type of idiocy to move your business activities into China and expect there to be any observance of "the rule of law" there. The term "the rule of law" is a western concept that goes back to the Magna Carta and simply means that a fixed, written law applies equally to all. This is not the case in China, which does not have any historical tie to the Magna Carta and which is run as a Communist state where by definition The Party is the law and decides how and where the basic laws will be applied (this is VERY different and far worse than even the western corruption of the rule of law which is referred to as "prosecutorial discretion" in which a prosecutor, often acting politically but pretending otherwise, claims a lack of resources is forcing him/her to not prosecute some cases).
Let's all sit back and watch to see if Elon Musk goes full-moron and transfers ANY of his Tesla IP into China...
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How is Microsoft a "friend of the POTUS"? You're really reaching here.
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They think they're in a game of "chicken" with their competitors, but it's actually much worse.
Re:You're surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
Greed Goggles are just as good, if not better, than Beer Goggles when it comes to blinding people to reality, it seems.
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Or maybe he's just lying to try to salvage his reputation.
I mean it does sound like horseshit. Chinese scammers steal his amazing IP that no other automaker has but somehow this one guy does, and then... Plans to sell the products abroad... Using his name... Where he could sue them... And their stolen patents and their IP would be invalid, because obviously he got his own international patents and trademarks first.
He's not that dumb, he did hire a half competent lawyer to help with this international busine
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Or maybe he's just lying to try to salvage his reputation.
That's pretty much what I thought.
The other possibility is that he's really stupid, but it doesn't sound like that. Just greedy then.
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The more I read about it the more it sounds like his partner just ripped him off and now he is blaming the entire country for some reason. Well, not some reason, we know exactly why, China is the current boogyman.
I remember not long after 9/11 some supercomputer parts were stolen in Australia and the guy supposed to be guarding them said he saw some "middle eastern looking guys" taking them. This is about as convincing as that was.
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This isn't just China. My brother-in-law went through a very similar experience in Chile. Even in relatively advanced countries like Chile laws regulating fiduciary duties aren't as strict as they are here, and there is no political will to protect foreign investors from treacherous but locally connected business partners.
If you get involved in a foreign venture, and it's not some place like the EU or Japan, you have to assume that your business associates and local authorities will consider you fair game
Re: You're surprised? (Score:2)
We should invade those countries.
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We should invade those countries.
again.
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Yakko's World song but countries that the UK has invaded [tiktok.com] (in case people were wondering what TikTok is all about)
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It's almost as if they value money more than their "intellectual property" and are too stupid to just not do business in that country.
A few of these companies (like Saleen) entered China based on ignorance. However, most enter willingly because they are playing with someone else's money and future. A CEO of a company is compensated on short-term performance and stock appreciation, so that CEO only needs to prop up the image of corporate success until the bulk of the stock vests. The main problem is that current corporate compensation structures promote actions that are not in the long-term interests of the company.
Whose fault? The stockholders'. (Score:2)
A few of these companies (like Saleen) entered China based on ignorance. However, most enter willingly because they are playing with someone else's money and future. A CEO of a company is compensated on short-term performance and stock appreciation, so that CEO only needs to prop up the image of corporate success until the bulk of the stock vests.
And whose fault is that? The stockholders'. They bought into the company knowing how it was set up. They elect the board. They vote on major rule changes - an
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A few of these companies (like Saleen) entered China based on ignorance.
If you're right then he got what he deserved. Are you claiming he never spoke to a lawyer with relevant experience before starting out on this venture?
Because if he didn't he is a very stupid man.
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If Saleen's allegations are true then a good lawyer wouldn't be able to help him anyway. Therefore the only correct advice would have been to say not to do business in China. That's... unrealistic for anybody, and very unlikely for a lawyer to advise. Lawyers make their money when you go ahead with something, not when you quit.
Look this is just a thing in places like China. It's rolling the dice. Most people end up fine. The correct way to reduce your risk if you can't afford to roll the dice has NOTHING to
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It's almost as if they value money more than their "intellectual property" and are too stupid to just not do business in that country
Yep, it's all about the money.
Also, it's hard not to do business in China if you're a company of any real size. A lot of the markets and raw materials are in China, and that's also where many of the manufactured bits and pieces come from that are used to build other gadgets and devices.
As soon as one American company moved their operations to China, the others had to follow suit to remain competitive.
The fact is that in pursuit of the bottom line, corporate bean counters have turned this country into a man
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Blinded by greed.
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You knew going in this was a possibility, you knew going in what you'd be subject to, you knew the Chinese government could take your ideas and yet, you went anyway.
Business is fundamentally a game of risk and reward. The reward here is a market 1/7th of the size of the rest of the world. That's a pretty damn big reward.
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I think part of it is that there is no loyalty left in the corporate world. Back in the 70's corporations started treating their people like shit, pension systems were abandoned, jobs were outsourced, pay and benefits stopped increasing at the same rate. For some industries this took a long time for others it was very quick.
But before that it wasn't uncommon for people to stay at one company for their entire careers. They would work their way up and have a real tribal sense about the org. Now it seems the o
Boohoo communists don't respect my private propery (Score:5, Insightful)
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I can't believe a country of based on the writings of Mao
Funny, but it doesn't require writings of Mao to commit thefts: https://ktla.com/news/nationwo... [ktla.com]
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More importantly, America did NOT steal the fuel (not oil). It is supposed to be sent back to Iran.
Re:Boohoo communists don't respect my private prop (Score:4, Informative)
There is an entire Wikipedia page about sanctions against both Iran and Venezuela.
Indeed. And it points out that right now Iran is not under the international sanctions that prohibit oil trade. So the US is just stealing the oil, or committing piracy.
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The US can and has both recently and in the past unilaterally directed UN members to enforce sanctions against Iran and Venezuela.
And quite recently the entire UN (with the exception of the Dominican Republic) has told the USA it can go fuck itself.
Thank Trump. He did the truly unthinkable: Turned the USA from a global power into an embarrassment.
USA's own allies (to say nothing of the wider UN) supported Iran during the USA's one sided backtracking on its deal.
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That's not theft, that's either enforcing international law (Iran and Venezuela are both targeted broadly with sanctions by the UN for being evil dictatorships) or an act of war.
Actually it's not. There are no international sanctions approved by the UN that prohibit transfer of oil from Iran to Venezuela. It's a pure theft by the US.
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(Iran and Venezuela are both targeted broadly with sanctions by the UN for being evil dictatorships)
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are being sanctioned for being evil dictatorships.
The US has no problem at all with evil dictatorships, it has set up some of the most evil dictatorships in history.
The sanctions are nothing to do with the UN.
Iran and Venezuela just happen to be the wrong kind of evil dictatorships.
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No they are not at was with us, the western world.
They have their own ideals and in more general way - a society, and we have our own. Still we don't want and need to go to war over those differences (but USA is pushing for it lately).
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Which country is that? Certainly not China.
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I can't believe a country of based on the writings of Mao would take my private property and distribute it amongst themselves!
While the sentiment is generally correct, calling China communist and referencing the writings of Mao in this case (or on China in general) shows an incredible lack of understanding of how China works (or how Communism / Maoism works).
There's nothing communist nor Maoist about China or ironically the CPC given their name and their former leadership. Hell one of the first things that China did after Mao's death was initiate socialist reforms. The man's cadaver was still fresh when China abandoned Maoism.
Expect this (Score:2, Insightful)
Before that, the U.S. was under-developed and trying to advance. They ruthlessly and unapologetically took as much knowledge as they could from Europe. By any means necessary. Europe didn't like it.
Before that, Europe was under-developed and trying to advance. They ruthlessly and blatantly took knowledge from
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True, but the flip side is that it is a good example of the fact that there will always be people looking to take advantage of others, and that doesn't bode well for left-wing pacifism.
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There didn't really need to be any partisan politics in this thread, but the OP said something about his observation making right-wing heads explode, and I just was trying (poorly, I guess) to point out that the same thing causes grief for left-wing ideals as well. Not that I need to explain, since I'm a moderate, and I expect everyone to hate me anyway.
Re: Expect this (Score:2)
I think you completely misread what in his post would make tight wingers' heads explode: the fact that at one point the Muslim Middle East was more scientifically and technologically advanced than Christian Europe.
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I see that I did probably read that comment as applying to more than just the previous sentence. Though I'm not sure I understand how knowledge of Muslim contributions to science and technology would affect the right-wing's opinion of them. But then I'm still stumped as to why the left-wing does not completely hate Muslims, given that they seem far, far from progressive.
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It's funny that you think you just educated "right-wingers" as if they hadn't ever opened a history book, when this example topples one of the main pillars of "left-wing" dogma...
The fact that you didn't notice before making a fool of yourself worries me.
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However, there are fewer of them as time goes on. This is extremely well-documented. As a group, right-wingers are less educated and l
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Socialism works great in Europe, maybe those Democrats just want some free healthcare and reasonable working conditions like we have.
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No, a slightly higher tax rate and correspondingly thicker social safety nets do NOT equal socialism. A lot of Bernie Bros get this confused. You want to talk about socialisms? Think less "Scandinavia" (capitalist democ
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Ok, so you don't know what Socialist means, and believe the Republican lies that Socialist = Dictatorship?
Fair enough, an honest mistake on your part. Go find out what it actually means (monetary&social policy, not a government structure), admit your mistake and move on.
Or be a good little blinkered republican, double down, rant and continue babbling in error.
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My info comes from this obscure website known as "wikipedia": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]. Just because there are socialist parties in control of some parts of Europe, that doesn't mean that the countries are socialist.
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Doubled down on a false definition, and misused an article titled "List of socialist states" which defines "Socialist state" as a country which explicitly calls itself "Socialist" in a formal constitution.
As expected, Nonsense.
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First whiff - which false statement did I double down on and can you support the claim that it's false?
Second whiff - that wikipedia website is actually fairly rigorous about sorting countries into various granular categories. Seemed pretty solid to me
Third whiff - the clincher that failed to make me curl up into the fetal position and admit your superiority, calling me "nonsense" without actually rebutting anything. This is a discussion
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Have you seen how many governments are headed by or in coalition with socialist parties in Europe? Or the socialist groups in the EU?
Anyway you might not call it socialism but we do.
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It sounds like he completely fell asleep at the wheel.
It sounds like every C-level exec who simply can't track everything in detail at their level, and having to assume that things mostly run on autopilot per standard business processes and a handshake level of trust.
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Before that, Europe was under-developed and trying to advance. They ruthlessly and blatantly took knowledge from the more advanced Muslim nations. By any means necessary. Right-wingers, I hope this one makes your head explode. Yes, there was a time when the Muslim world was the most enlightened part of humanity.
That is the dumbest thing I've heard all day. Not that the Muslim world was more civilized at one point, that is hardly news, but that you would compare China's state-organized theft of IP happening right now with the lawless and chaotic systems in place during the dark ages and before. There was no "theft" in any sense since there was no "IP" at the time, and what we got from the Muslim world was not CPU designs to be sold for profit but rather scientific and educational material, some of it which the Musl
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Before that, Europe was under-developed and trying to advance.
That's giving too much credit to Europe.
nice try, but a tad racist (Score:3)
First, the Chinese people are NOT more-recently descended from (and therefore more-closely tied to) our common ape-like ancestors, so they are NOT, as a people, less developed and entitled to be viewed as children who should be expected to misbehave; they are just as mature and should be expected to behave in just as civilized a manner as anybody else. If their culture and/or politics are more backwards or primitive then that's by their choice and it's on them. Biologically, they are the equals of the white
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Happily, that trend is finally showing signs of subsiding as certain bubbles of tech-friendlyness began to form and grow in those societies in the latter 20th century and we now have an Arab nation sending a probe to Mars.
After that rant about the propaganda of Howard Zinn, you fall for the propaganda of "...an Arab nation sending a probe to Mars." The UAE paid the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder to design and build the probe and paid Japan to launch it. The UAE did fuck all to design, build, or launch that probe. They paid a bunch of contractors from other countries to do the work and plastered a sticker with their name on it at the end. They aren't even running
kick you out and keep the IP (Score:2)
Yeah, they're *keeping the oil*
Monkey see monkey do
ChinaLawBlog (Score:5, Interesting)
For anyone who want to know more about doing business in China, I recommend reading chinalawblog.com [chinalawblog.com]
There is a lot of interesting and concerning advise from a law firm that has advised many business people who have got into difficulties, there is a small book worth of blog entries such as How to not get kidnapped in China [chinalawblog.com]
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Reading the blog, one can't help thinking doing business in China as a high-stake gamble: you can end up making a profit, or you can end up burned by obscure and (to westerners) counter-intuitive laws, human rights violations, theft, corruption, or all o
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They are lawyers selling a service, of course they are going to try to scare the shit out of you so you pay their massive fees.
Haha. Sucker! (Score:1)
@Saleen: You were a sucker! Live and learn. And, I told you so.
Saleen is a liar, and probably the real thief (Score:1)
He's just on an anti China rant because they saw through his scam, whatever it was he was trying to pull.
Wait for the other shoe to drop.
Makes one wonder about that Great Wall. (Score:1)
China also counterfeits entire companies. (Score:3)
It's a remarkable story of China cloning NEC then disappearing when caught. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/technology/01pirate.html [nytimes.com]
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22 fake Apple stores.
"The illusion was so perfect that even the employees thought the place was legit. Let's say that again: Even though it's a complete knockoff, all the employees completely believed they were working for Apple."
https://www.cracked.com/articl... [cracked.com]
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Seems very odd because as the article notes the products were generally quite good and well made so why not just set up their brand? It's not like people have an irrational hatred of Chinese brands, is it?
Maybe things were different back then, although worth noting that the police investigated and shut it all down. These days brands like Xiaomi, DJI, Lenovo and Anker are sought after.
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Seems very odd because as the article notes the products were generally quite good and well made so why not just set up their brand?
Because brand name is damn important. Wanting an NEC monitor is not the same as not wanting a brand you've never heard of.
I'm glad you mentioned Lenovo. They're a great company now that they've painstakingly over 35 years built up a brand by manufacturing for the west and then outright buying out recognisable businesses from well renowned western companies.
Every other company you list also didn't appear overnight, they either came to the market with something unique or built up their brand over many years.
N
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How about Xaiomi though? They have built their brand from basically nothing in a few years by having great products. Same with OnePlus. Huawei phones are well rated despite the persistent propaganda about them.
Seems like an error, they could have build something great.
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How about Xaiomi though?
I'll reserve judgement on them when I actually see someone with a Xaiomi device anywhere in the west, same with OnePlus. I've seen plenty of Huawei gear, but then that is also a company that was founded in the 80s and built up an empire over many years.
No doubt Xaiomi and OnePlus are fine, just not a household name like Huawei or Lenovo.... yet. Now doubt they'll get more popular over time though, but still nothing like popping up a fake brand overnight selling quickly and disappearing into the ether when y
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I have all of them except Huawei. OnePlus phone still going strong at six years old. Xiaomi vacuum cleaner is better than a Dyson and a fraction of the cost.
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China has been doning this all along... (Score:2)
Seriously, this is foolish that ppl do this and then gripe about it. About the ONLY company doing things right is tesla and even then, I do not trust the situation. Thankfully, all the money is from China, not from American markets.
Nazi's Can't Be Trusted?! (Score:2)
Who would have guessed?
All this shows is that... (Score:3)
...'brilliant' people are pretty fecking stupid.
Nobody with a brain should assume their IP is *ever* safe in China.
I know one of our competitors built a factory to produce a specially-coated paper there, mainly because our customers were DEMANDING (for no logical reason) that Asia/Pacific (China) prices "just be 30% lower" than anywhere else in the world.
So dutifully, they put a factory down the road from this customer in China, and business seemed to be good for 5-6 years. What they didn't realize was that the Chinese were simultaneously building an IDENTICAL plant a little further down the road. Eventually, their now fully trained staff (who had been dutifully photographing and copying everything) just up and left to work at the lovely new Chinese owned plant, leaving them without staff. I believe the endgame will be that they will be compelled to sell their plant at half-price as well.
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Soon it won't matter they have 6 times STEM workforce wrt. USA. If they can't copy, they will wrap their head around and start innovating. Now, what is more dangerous?
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While I don't disagree with your overall point, I don't think creativity is that easy.
I think one underappreciated facet of our various economic situations is that the US is really entirely populated by people descended from people willing to take a MASSIVE risk of relocating their lives. In most cases, this is voluntary (not refugees, for example).
I don't think that's trivial. I think it suffuses the US populace in a subtle way that hasn't been much studied. (And, frankly, as many Americans are now 3+ g
A business dispute. (Score:1)
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Seems Just a typical contract dispute where someone is playing the racial card.
"China" is a race now? I guess it was only a matter of time. Who's next, Niger? Oh wait...that's probably not a good idea.
I have known a few little guys that tried to work (Score:2)
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