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United States China Technology

US Attempts To Slow China's Innovation Rate (cnbc.com) 137

AltMachine writes: U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo wants the U.S. to work with Europe to slow China's innovation rate, while at the same time accusing China of ripping of western intellectual properties. "America is most effective when we work with our allies," Raimondo told CNBC's Kayla Tausche in an exclusive interview. "If we really want to slow down China's rate of innovation, we need to work with Europe. They're ripping off our IP, they are not playing by the rules. It's not a level playing field. And so we need to hold their feet to the fire to make sure that they do that." Raimondo invokes the ideological divide to justify the push. "We don't want autocratic governments like China, writing the rules of the road. We together with our allies, who care about privacy, freedom, individual rights, individual protection, we need to write the rules of the road," Raimondo said.

Similar to innovation history of the U.S. which evolved from apprehending IPs of other countries before turning into a technological innovation powerhouse, China has in recent years greatly accelerated its R&D spendings and fortified IP protections. Of the more than 1,600 cases analyzed, IP owners won more than 80% of the time and permanent injunctions were issued by the Chinese courts in more than 90% of the cases. As noted by Judge Gang Feng of the Beijing IP Court in 2016, foreign corporations had a 100% win rate before that court in 2015.
"We have to work with our European allies to deny China the most advanced technology so that they can't catch up in critical areas like semiconductors," Raimondo added. "We want to work with Europe, to write the rules of the road for technology, whether it's TikTok or artificial intelligence or cyber."

Further reading: China's Growing Power Crunch Threatens More Global Supply Chain Chaos
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US Attempts To Slow China's Innovation Rate

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  • by ihadafivedigituid ( 8391795 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @05:45PM (#61846195)
    .... this Raimondo dude says: "We together with our allies, who care about privacy, freedom, individual rights, individual protection, we need to write the rules of the road ..."

    He keeps using these words. I do not think they mean what he thinks they mean.
    • Don't they though?

      The more economic control China wields over the US, the more political influence they can assert. If you don't think that increased Chinese political influence means less of those things he is listing, well then I have some bridges to sell you.

      • by NicknameUnavailable ( 4134147 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @05:56PM (#61846235)

        The more economic control China wields over the US, the more political influence they can assert. If you don't think that increased Chinese political influence means less of those things he is listing, well then I have some bridges to sell you.

        Even more ironic is the fact TFA is literally a Chinese propaganda piece to dissuade people from doing anything to stop Xi's bid for world domination at the expense of literally everyone else (even his own people.)

      • How do you manage to come up with less than nothing?

      • Hey. I am in China and I just want to say you're a gay.

        They honestly don't fucking care as long as (a) you don't try to influence politics involving the 3 TS or HK, -and (b) you keeping buying what they produce.

        China and America are married and the honeymoon period is over. Americans hate that Chinese stole their ideas and are now world leaders in production. Chinese hate that Americans have no respect for their customs. The fact is, we are more alike than you would imagine...

    • by The Real Dr John ( 716876 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @05:59PM (#61846249) Homepage

      Yes, another example of capitalists, who claim to worship "competition", needing to stifle competition from others whenever possible. Maybe the US should put more money into actual scientific research, rather than weapons and the military, if we want to innovate.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by LainTouko ( 926420 )

        Unsurprising, since capitalism is really, as the name suggests, about capital, associations with things like competition or free markets is just propaganda. The origin of capital is relations like "I own this factory (the capital) so nobody can use it to make things without giving me a cut" (which works by the owner taking the product and buying labour from workers with wages at less than the value of the labour.) "Intellectual property" is the turning of ideas and creativity into capital, "I own this paten

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Came here to say the same thing. Huawei didn't steal 5G IP, they invented it. That's why they are years ahead of everyone else in the 5G space, they did the research, they got it into the standard and they reaped the rewards, fair and square.

        All this whining about stolen IP is just letting the US fall further behind. The only way to complete is to innovate on the scale that China does. If you look at Huawei's R&D budget it's way beyond what most US companies are investing. Only really Google comes close

    • Good wording, great idea this, and to put some real effort in those words, say, for everyone, start by accepting the ICC.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    • by Larsen E Whipsnade ( 4686581 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:42PM (#61846537)
      That ship has sailed. Allies don't trust the US.

      Flamewars over whose fault that is may be found elsewhere.
    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by Aighearach ( 97333 )

      .... this Raimondo dude says: "We together with our allies, who care about privacy, freedom, individual rights, individual protection, we need to write the rules of the road ..."

      He keeps using these words. I do not think they mean what he thinks they mean.

      She keeps using words, and you're right; they don't mean what you think they do. She means them literally.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      A bit rich complaining about privacy too. The EU has far stronger privacy protections, and with the recently announced proposals it looks like China will too shortly.

  • Slow innovation? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JazzXP ( 770338 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @05:50PM (#61846215) Homepage
    Shouldn't it be a case of "Innovate faster than China" rather than slowing them? Isn't this just bad for everyone?
    • by systemd-anonymousd ( 6652324 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @06:21PM (#61846315)

      The article is confusing in general. They're talking about stopping China from stealing Western IP. It's extremely common for Chinese contractors to fulfill the contract while simultaneously stealing the design and undercutting the company that did the R&D.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by LainTouko ( 926420 )
        Even if it's all a pretence, China does call itself 'Communist'. The idea of patents and copyrights doesn't even make sense outside of capitalist societies. The concepts only exist so that ideas and creative works can behave as capital and capitalism can process them economically.
        • Re:Slow innovation? (Score:4, Informative)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @04:41AM (#61847227) Homepage Journal

          China isn't communist, and it's biggest companies make extensive use of IP protections. Huawei, Xiaomi, BYD, Lenovo, they are all innovating and patenting their inventions. They enforce those patents too, both inside and outside of China.

          • China plays the game while it suits them... The works by Mao make it clear this is the only way to succeed at achieving the communist ideal. Though it's arguable that when capitalistic powers emerge, the communist ideal is nullified... The again Jack Ma got fucked, so maybe there is hope.

        • Patents and copyrights aren't solely and necessarily part of capitalist society. They were invented during feudalism. Copyright was ideology control institution to ensure that new printing press technology isn't used to distribute heresy and other things the King doesn't like. Patents are monopolies that King gave to particular people loyal to him to control economic processes.
          • by dryeo ( 100693 )

            I'd say that the start of modern patents and copyright started at the end of feudalism. In feudalism, everyone paid rent, usually in labour (often soldiers) or goods to their Lord, who paid it to their Lord and ultimately the Crown.
            As that ended the Crown, when needing money, used various means to raise capital as taxes required the consent of the people (Parliament) and they always wanted something in return. So the Crown sold monopolies in various industries using Letters Patent or in the case of Copyrigh

        • Exactly... the whole point China is tryi ng to make is that ideas cannot be owned. Work for virtually any large tech company and they say they own your ideas even if produced in your free time. The disgusting nature of capitalists as coveting ideas is little different than China saying you cannot really own one.

          • And yet every major innovation has come from people striving to achieve a great level of success and reward for their contributions, and everything China has produced has been stolen or based on innovators from other societies.

            • You do know China invented gunpowder and paper. They are now world leaders in AI and quantum telecommunication. Your statement is like saying the US in 1800s never invented anything and only stole technology from other countries. China has plenty of people striving for success and reward for their contributions.

              • When was paper invented? 2010? 2000? 1990? 1980? Further back? 1900? 1800? 1700? 1600? Wait, 105 A.D?

                China from 105 A.D. has nothing to do with the market forces I'm talking about 1,916 years later. Same goes for the other ancient inventions in China.

                They're not world leaders in AI and quantum computing. They're competitors to world leaders. And everything I said about them stealing IP as a matter of national policy is accurate.

      • Stop the steal !!

      • by vivian ( 156520 )

        Perhaps the real problem is the way IP is managed.
        Up to a point, patent protection and copyright are needed to give inventors and artists rights to income from their work - with patents supposedly providing real details about how something works so that other inventions can build on that in exchange for protection of the original idea, and copyright supposedly being to secure income from original works and encourage creators to make additional works.

        The problem is that neither of these systems are working a

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's really not common at all. These days it's rare for devices to be complete when they leave the Chinese factory, e.g. they will need firmware and maybe some other services like cloud servers to actually work. Even where you opt for a full build, firmware loaded, installed in case and packaged up, rare for it to be cloned. Obviously these Chinese companies know that their reputation is important, and that customer relations are important and lead to steady or increasing business, so they respect your IP.

        A

  • by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @05:53PM (#61846225)
    But why also the rhetoric to slow China's innovation rate? Nice way to play into the hands of Chinese propaganda that the West isn't about international law, but that they are more interested to keep down any rivals.
    • Nice way to play into the hands of Chinese propaganda that the West isn't about international law, but that they are more interested to keep down any rivals.

      The Chinese "propaganda" is actually right about the West's (in particular the USA's) intent. It's shown even by the American's behaviors toward their own allies [amazon.com]. You, along with majority of your fellow citizens, have been brainwashed, repeatedly, by American propaganda (a.k.a political marketing [ozy.com]) whenever it attempts to take on an foreign rivals [vox.com] (or allies [foreignpolicy.com]) in order to gain public supports. The real problem is that you, along with your fellow citizens, will always conclude with "So What?" and then promptl

    • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

      But why also the rhetoric to slow China's innovation rate? Nice way to play into the hands of Chinese propaganda that the West isn't about international law, but that they are more interested to keep down any rivals.

      How is it propaganda if it's not only true, but the US is boasting about it.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's not really propaganda when it's actually true.

      I think fortunately in this case the EU won't be interested in joining any US lead efforts in this area.

      • It's not really propaganda when it's actually true.

        It's not actually true that they want to slow the innovation rate, they want to slow the IP theft rate. Innovation is when you actually innovate, not when you "steal". (It's illegal to violate IP in China too, except effectively when the Chinese do it to people from other nations.)

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          That doesn't seem to be what they are whining about here. In any case, I don't think China is particularly bad.

          One job I worked at we got hold of the competitor's product and were asked to "investigate" it. Another we set up a US subsidiary company because the US government (!) was trying to rip off our product by developing their own similar one based on what they had learned from contracting to use ours. Apparently the rule is that they can't compete with US companies, so having a subsidiary killed their

  • by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @06:03PM (#61846259)
    Wow that reads as a playbook I would expect from a dictator. "Must slow their innovation", "must force them to play by our rules". How about we just fucking pull our fingers out and out innovate them and make it so playing by our rules is simply more attractive rather than try to suppress and dominate others.
    • Once upon a time trade tariffs and import duties made their mark, Then the rules were changed, and overpriced western researchers/specialists got rid of. Worse of all large companies that sent jobs overseas collected tax breaks and were able to charge the same off imported goods, of in the case of Nike and Apple pay duties on 5% if that, and brandname value added - went to an offshore account in full view. The US could recover if they did a Germany, and rewarded only those actually employing people making
  • awful sentiment (Score:2, Insightful)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 )
    I don't like that. I'm all for containing China. Contain and restrain them because I don't want a Chinese emperor to rule the world. Don't give them preferred trading status, because they don't deserve it any more. Preventing them from stealing our tech? Hm. As the article points out, the US stole plenty of knowledge from other countries. So, maybe that's a grey area, if I'm being totally honest.

    But actually work to slow their pace of innovation? That's essentially sabotaging their society. I'm against
    • I don't like that. I'm all for containing China. Contain and restrain them because I don't want a Chinese emperor to rule the world.

      US has a thousand overseas military bases, China has none. US is occupying 150 countries, China is occupying none. Your argument is not only invalid, it's embarrassing.

      • by dryeo ( 100693 )

        Well perhaps Tibet is occupied, and the other Chinese government has displaced the Formosan's turning Taiwan Chinese.

      • think you're being a bit superlative. 150 countries? List them. Just cause there's a military base in a country doesn't equal occupation.

        And, I think that the Tibetans and the Uighurs would beg to differ in terms of your claim that China doesn't occupy.

        My country is far from perfect, but I'd rather the top dog be a democracy, even a flawed one, rather than a hereditary oligarchy like China. I stand by my statement.
      • US has a thousand overseas military bases, China has none.

        Really?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • As long as the US insists on denying education, healthcare and livable wages to the majority of its citizens it can look forward to being a 3rd world shit hole by 2035

    hell, the UN already declared the US a 3rd world nation as far as healthcare and wealth inequality back in 2017, but itâ(TM)s going to get a heck of a lot worse

    and thatâ(TM)s even if we donâ(TM)t have a 2nd civil war. If we do, then you can kiss the US good bye forever

    • Doesnt matter (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ghoul ( 157158 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2021 @07:25PM (#61846483)
      As long as Hollywood movies keep portraying US as the land of milk and honey and such movies are watched around the world , talented foreigners will keep immigrating to provide the necessary talent and inovation

      If the supply slows down another country can be destabilized and their doctors and engineers brought over, though the Afghan, Syrian and Libyan talent will do for a while.
    • Leave it to ignorant American shitheads to mod this as off topic â" because to Americans everything happens by magic, certainly not by getting the working class healthy and educated, like China is â" well shitheads, America is fucking done and over. America is already an abusive cesspool of graft and exploitation and filled with willfully ignorant fat fuck morons who bend over and take it up the ass from DC and Wall Street. Enjoy living as a fucking slaves to the new fascist aristocracy that will
  • The USA Federal Government has let a lot of technology in a lot of different fields of technology flow to Communist China.
    Since the 1970's from what I have seen. 50 years of chucking our valuable, corporate technology at the Chi-Coms.
    Even the USA Federal Government has opened their technology up to all sorts of foreign nationals, giving the Chi-Coms the Federal Governments valuable (and most valuable) technology to the Chi-Com either directly or indirectly.

    Close the doors and get on with business!
  • This is hilarious! Isn’t it Americans who like to say China only steals and copy and cannot innovate? Now you say they are not only innovating, but are innovating too fast? Oh, the irony!

    • by leonbev ( 111395 )

      China doesn't really "innovate", though. They copy and refine, because that's where the money is. You're probably not going to get the latest in self driving car tech from China, for example, but you know damn well that they'll be the first to produce a self-driving car computer that cost less than $1,000.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        That "IS" innovation. you are confusing inventing with innovating. China have plenty of areas where they are the leaders in inventions too, But manufacturing efficiencies and innovation here is one of their best areas. They are also the leaders in many Tech areas like 5G etc.
  • I hope that China 'steals' every last one of our troll patents for product ideas that are sitting around unexploited. The consumers of the world need those ideas to appear as products. Feed those East Texas courts to the alligators.

  • No need to rip it off, as your captains of industry and politicians are happy to sell it to China.

    Meet the U.S. Officials Now in China’s Sphere of Influence [thedailybeast.com]
  • Seriously, no normal human would ever think about being *such* an asshole to anyone.
    It's like such people can only think in "US VS THEM" and only as an either-or. And they can only feel right if they not only succeed, but the others die too! (The last sentence is paraphrasing what Lloyd Blankfein from Goldman Sachs literally said!)

    Yes, I would fight Hitler. But would I try to stop German scientists from innovating? Hell no!
    Especially if they actually share that innovation, like China does quite a lot.

    And Am

  • He's basically talking about ASML, whose chipmaking machines are the state-of-the-art in semiconductor manufacturing. Denying China these machines could seriously hamper their ability to make advanced semiconductors. Currently, none of these advanced EUV machines are being exported to China, but IMHO the U.S. wants to make this ban official and permanent.

    The rest of Europe has little to offer, except maybe helping in banning Chinese products which the U.S. deems to be infringing on IP.
  • Free trade is sacred - as long as America is in control of the freedom.

    Multinationals killing local businesses by exploiting foreign workers? It's good and inevitable, and the playing field is even, notwithstanding the fact that local workers have rights while foreign workers are slaves.

    Developing countries companies threatening the dominance of American companies? THE PLAYING FIELD IS NOT LEVEL! Let's limit their freedom, shall we Europe? You remember who's the boss, don't you, Europe? Do you really want

  • Maybe start by not alienating the single major military player of the EU (France) as the US did with the AUKUS deal. While knowing full well that statistically speaking, the ego of the French, esp. that of French men, is particularly fragile, so they don't like to see their otherwise OK leader to be taken by surprise by an old ally just like the 45th president wouldn've done it

  • United States wants perpetual dominance, because imperialism. Prove me wrong, with China having no overseas bases or invading countries on the opposite side of the planet for bullshit reasons.

    • You're correct that the U.S. wants perpetual dominance. China would also like to have perpetual dominance. However you are wrong about China. They have military bases in 4 foreign countries. They also have a history of stupid invasions. E.g. When they conquered Tibet, and invaded parts of India and Vietnam.
  • On a cursory check the quote appears genuine. Haven't read all of it, so context may matter, but this is really not a helpful way of phrasing it. It plays RIGHT into the hand of Chinese state propaganda.

    Pressure China to play fairly in terms of investments, company ownership, IP protection, standards, etc? Absolutely.

    Stop pretending they're a developing country and giving them breaks on all sorts of rules? Most definitely.

    Call them out on the shit they're pulling wrt to human rights and privacy invasi

  • Seems to me this talk about respect for individual property is a bit bogus. The human race continually bubbles up music, art and ideas. That's different than personal property, which is things. When the west has 70 year (or more) copyright cycles, and rentier corporations, the pot calling the kettle black doesn't resonate.
  • by dave314159259 ( 1107469 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @08:50AM (#61847609)

    How about we stop slowing down our own innovation rate instead:

    - Regulations that interfere with small businesses because compliance costs more on a percent-of-revenue basis than for large businesses.

    - An overly-complex tax system with bizarre and non-economic incentives and penalties.

    - A patent system that is used more to stifle newcomers than to protect genuine innovation and new ideas.

    - Technical standards that require payment in order to implement, certify, or even find out what they are.

    - Regulations and taxes that reward low-risk 'do more of the same' and punish 'try something new and risky, you'll make a lot of money if it works'.

    - Regulations that grant some companies or organizations privileged positions for approving new products or services within their domain.

    - Regulatory requirements that drive up costs far in excess of the asserted benefit.

    - A legal system that rewards filing lawsuits to interfere with a company's business plans and drive up its costs (lawyers are expensive) when there's no reasonable basis for the lawsuit.

    And many more ...

  • Because the US has been very effective at slowing the US innovation rate: Title IX nonsense, special privileges for certain groups leading to hiring and promotion of incompetents based on identity, requirements to recite woke loyalty oaths, and the list goes on.

  • So, the US and Europe want a monopoly on technological development and they're calling China autocratic?

    They "care about privacy, freedom, individual rights, individual protection, we need to write the rules of the road," but these are the same governments in the Five-Eyes that do mass surveillance, drone strikes on innocent families and are constantly working on regime change in developing nations?

    Lenin was correct in his definition of Imperialism, it's best defined as Monopoly Capitalism, which is the
  • by Zdzicho00 ( 912806 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @12:26PM (#61848345)

    Just have a look what US maths professors are saying about this issue:
    https://quillette.com/2021/08/... [quillette.com]
    This country is doomed to fall. Get woke, go broke on massive, national scale.

  • No one should be looking generically to slow anyone's innovation. If we want to be the leaders, we need to encourage our own innovation, for large values of "we."

    If by this they do mean discouraging activities by rules that unfairly advantage them, either by IP theft or worker abuse or other bad behaviors, fine.

    I had a colleague who spent time with Chinese researchers. He was impressed by their energy and ambition. As with Japan, imitation will soon, if it has not already, become innovation. The world sho

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