"Innovate or DIE"
Sec Thomas Geithner in a Huffington/Reuters news feed says China is very agressive in taking away technology from US and costs US jobs and loss of revenues. Here is the full article and please think about it: is China stealing or imitating creatively? Is it ethical? Would it not be opportunity seizing? Isnt just being businesslike or entreprenurial? Here is the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/timothy-geithner-china-very-aggressive-stealing-technology_n_977509.html
Here is the quoted article::
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday that China is
holding to its decades-old strategy to steal American intellectual
property, in a pointed statement reflecting U.S. officials' growing
impatience with Beijing.
"They China have made possible systematic stealing of intellectual
property of American companies and have not been very aggressive to put
in place the basic protections for property rights that every serious
economy needs over time," Geithner told a forum in Washington.
"We're seeing China continue to be very, very aggressive in a
strategy they started several decades ago, which goes like this: you
want to sell to our country, we want you to come produce here ... if you
want to come produce here, you need to transfer your technology to us,"
Geithner said.
Although unusually direct, Geithner's comments echo a common refrain
from U.S. officials and executives. The new U.S. Ambassador to China,
Gary Locke, who has assailed China in the past for its trade practices,
has put the defense of U.S. intellectual property among his chief
priorities.
China has said it would drop some of its "indigenous innovation"
rules that have riled foreign companies who say access to government
equipment and technology orders hinge on their transferring patents and
other intellectual property.
But business associations in China argue that enforcement of
Beijing's promises has been spotty, particularly at the local government
level, hampering foreign companies' access to a market estimated to be
worth as much as $1 trillion a year.
In
an offshoot of Washington's dissatisfaction with Beijing's trade
policies, leaders in Washington have long argued that China's yuan
currency is undervalued, giving Chinese companies a price advantage that
costs U.S. jobs.
But the foreign business community in China -- concerned about what
they see as China becoming more closed toward foreign investors in
recent years -- has argued that the emphasis on yuan revaluation
distracts from the most serious issues threatening U.S. business
interests.
A coalition of 51 U.S. business groups sent a letter dated Wednesday
to senators considering a currency bill, urging them to focus more on
China's inadequate protection of intellectual property and restrictions
on market access.
"... unilateral legislation on this issue would be
counterproductive not only to the goals related to China's exchange rate
that we all share, but also to our nation's broader objectives of
addressing the many and growing challenges that we face in China," the
groups said.
Piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. software and a wide range of other
intellectual property in China cost U.S. businesses alone an estimated
$48 billion and 2.1 million jobs in 2009, the U.S. International Trade
Commission has said.
The United States' trade deficit with China hit a record $273 billion in 2010 and could top that this year.
In May, China was listed for the seventh year by the U.S. Trade
Representative's office as a country with one of the worst records for
preventing copyright theft.
"New ideas create more and better new products and services; create more wealth."
