China says its bullet train technology was stolen

[Randy W]

in the SCMP

 

China says its bullet train technology was stolen, days after US trade probe move

Officials urged to do more to protect intellectual property in commentary published two days after US announcement

 

The call came in a commentary published in the official Procuratorial Daily on Wednesday, two days after it was announced that US President Donald Trump would authorise his trade representative to look into China’s trade practices.

Developing countries had “spied on and stolen” China’s fast-train technology to get the competitive edge at the expense of Chinese companies, the commentary said, without naming the countries.

Its authors – Gao Xiaoyi, a vice chief of the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate, and Sun Dawei, of the Shanghai Railway Transport Procuratorate – said China had developed its own technology to build an extensive high-speed railway network but had failed to adequately protect its know-how.

 

. . .

 

Starting in 2004, China got its fast-rail know-how off the ground by setting up joint ventures with market leaders from Germany, France and Japan. The foreign partners signed technology transfer contracts with the Chinese government, giving them access to the vast Chinese market.

 

But years later, after helping to train the Chinese engineers and develop a local supply chain, the foreign companies said they had lost out – and their former partners were now rivals.

They accused the Chinese companies of breaching contracts that had limited the use of their technology to China – with those firms now trying to sell Chinese technology abroad – and said that they had replicated rather than innovated.

. . .

James Andrew Lewis, senior vice-president of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote in an opinion piece on the CSIS website on Tuesday that confronting China over its unlawful practices concerning intellectual property was long overdue, “but the central issue is not IP theft but the unfair treatment of US companies in China”.

“China, after decades of spending, is creating its own culture of innovation – not as effective as America’s but better than most countries and lavishly resourced,” Lewis wrote.

He said the US should “push back hard” against China’s demands for technology transfer in return for market access, and against Chinese barriers to trade, while the US needed to do more to protect its intellectual property.

 

 

 

[Randy W]

The article referred to in the last paragraph - from the Center for Strategic and International Studies

 

Put China’s Intellectual Property Theft in a Larger Context

 

Stolen IP does not mean that the victim company has lost the ability to make products. What has happened is that it now faces a new competitor. This is the real problem, since China flouts its World Trade Organization commitments and hobbles foreign competition. It has created a protected Chinese market, provides subsidies for foreign sales, and imposes nontariff barriers to hamper Western companies. Subsidized Chinese companies operating from a closed domestic market and selling to an open international market have an immense advantage, and this is a logical strategy.

 

[Greg.D.]

There are several disingenuous statements in the first article. starting with:

 

China says its bullet train technology was stolen, days after US trade probe move

and:

 

Developing countries had “spied on and stolen” China’s fast-train technology to get the competitive edge at the expense of Chinese companies, the commentary said, without naming the countries.

and:

 

Lu Xiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China had improved in the area of intellectual property protection and it would be willing to negotiate with the US if it provided evidence of forced technology transfers.

 

From an article in Fortune, 2013:

Did China steal Japan’s high-speed train?

 

What could drive the normally unlitigious Japanese into such a frenzy? Not only did China copy their technology, say the Japanese, after patenting remarkably similar high-speed-rail (HSR) tech, CSR now wants to sell it to the rest of the world -- as Chinese made. Both Japanese and European rail firms now find themselves frozen out and competing with their former Chinese collaborators for new contracts, inside and outside China.

 

 

China knows all about IP and patents and will target your patents with look alike patents with the goal of blatant infringement and undercutting you.

 

Segway was being copied left and right with China - despite a broad estate of patents - eventually, the offending companies took their ill-gotten gains (to use an old but off-patent cliche)and bought a weakened Segway. This was planned and executed and was told to me by someone who was part of the Chinese team. This is what they do.

 

And, I am told this team sits around and mocks Americans for being too weak and deserving of being ripped off because we are too trusting.

[Randy W]

There are several disingenuous statements in the first article. starting with:

 

China says its bullet train technology was stolen, days after US trade probe move

and:

 

Developing countries had “spied on and stolen” China’s fast-train technology to get the competitive edge at the expense of Chinese companies, the commentary said, without naming the countries.

and:

 

quote:

 

Lu Xiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China had improved in the area of intellectual property protection and it would be willing to negotiate with the US if it provided evidence of forced technology transfers.

 

From an article in Fortune, 2013:

Did China steal Japan’s high-speed train?

 

What could drive the normally unlitigious Japanese into such a frenzy? Not only did China copy their technology, say the Japanese, after patenting remarkably similar high-speed-rail (HSR) tech, CSR now wants to sell it to the rest of the world -- as Chinese made. Both Japanese and European rail firms now find themselves frozen out and competing with their former Chinese collaborators for new contracts, inside and outside China.

 

 

China knows all about IP and patents and will target your patents with look alike patents with the goal of blatant infringement and undercutting you.

 

Segway was being copied left and right with China - despite a broad estate of patents - eventually, the offending companies took their ill-gotten gains (to use an old but off-patent cliche)and bought a weakened Segway. This was planned and executed and was told to me by someone who was part of the Chinese team. This is what they do.

 

And, I am told this team sits around and mocks Americans for being too weak and deserving of being ripped off because we are too trusting.

 

 

You say "disingenuous", but I believe that was the point of the article - to point out exactly that.The quotes you gave are from Chinese sources "in the official Procuratorial Daily", and the SCMP article is pointing out how it very likely came in reaction to Trump's trade probe. Read the parts I quoted in the first post here.

 

Yes, it does start out quoting from the Procuratorial Daily, but that seems to be the intent - to expose these claims for what they are, while the second article Put China’s Intellectual Property Theft in a Larger Context tries to give a broader perspective.

[Randy W]

More fuel for this point of view has come out in other articles, including this one, also in the SCMP

 

A talent for invention? China’s media tries to lay claim to other countries’ discoveries

State-run outlets’ attempts to take the credit for things developed in US, Japan and Europe attracts derision from social media users

 

Chinese state media has praised the country’s “four new great inventions” – even though none of them actually originated in China.

 

. . .

 

“Among the four, high-speed rail and online shopping aren’t from China, but we bring the inventions to the world’s top level with our intelligence and innovation, and make them China’s calling card,” Xinhua’s article wrote.

The fact is none of them were invented by China.

 

[Greg.D.]

Yes, sorry, Randy, I did realize they were probably intended to appear disingenuous and I just skipped over acknowledging that. In fact, they were laid down so plainly (as if they were forced to publish them) and then left undefended so that their preposterousness was obvious.

 

I am taking issue with this new campaign to try to re-write history and ignore what goes on still today.

 

I am a little worried for China that they pretty much cannot innovate ... except for improvements to things developed outside their country and culture. Probably why they are so dependent on industrial espionage. I know that Chinese working here within the usual rules of research and development can be as good as anybody .... seems to be little reward for the patient way there and managers hate to acknowledge superstars working "beneath them".