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Perhaps make an argument using some data. Do Chinese companies engage in IP theft or corporate espionage at a higher rate than other countries? Is there a cultu
by briandear 8y ago
Perhaps make an argument using some data. Do Chinese companies engage in IP theft or corporate espionage at a higher rate than other countries? Is there a cultural point of relevance rather than race? We don’t hear of many stories of ethnic Chinese Singaporeans or Taiwanese doing this sort of thing — when it comes to Chinese, it’s almost exclusively related to mainland, Communist China. Is it racial to point out that there could be some validity to the argument that mainland/communist Chinese engage in this sort of behavior at a higher rate than Indians or pretty much every other Asian country? Do we know that not to be true?
I’m not looking at data, so I don’t know the answer, but dismissing an apparent cultural/political tendency to engage in IP theft or espionage as “racist” is simplistic. HN loves to generalize about Americans and American companies and their practices, yet to do that with China is somehow racist? Regarding Chinese students — how do you think they get permission to study in the US? Chinese people don’t have unlimited freedom of travel. You have to be “approved” before they’ll let you study abroad. That “approval” has a lot to do with the political reliability of that person. So while it is fair to say all Chinese don’t agree with this sort of thing, it is fair to say that the Chinese that end up in US graduate programs represent a set of those who have demonstrated adherence to the CCP mindset.
Race doesn’t have anything to do with the discussion; it’s a cultural-political question and, culturally, mainland communist Chinese have a different viewpoint than international IP law upholds.
You rarely hear of a British person stealing secrets or British companies blatantly stealing sensitive IP. Is that because it happens far less frequently or because it doesn’t get reported?
It seems as if the Chinese way of doing business supports these sorts of situations and it seems that the Chinese cultural attitude towards IP is at odds with the very idea of IP. It’s fair to point that out. Flagging a legitimate story because you don’t like the racial implication is itself racist — you seem to be suggesting that we ought not to discuss this if the perpetrator is of a certain nationality because it might reflect badly on the country and it’s people. Censoring something because you object to the conclusions that might be fairly drawn is to limit the range of intellectual discussion.
Despite the seeming cooperation, China views the US as an adversary. It would be naïve to discount the critique of Chinese practices as simple racism.
- abalone 8y ago> We don’t hear of many stories of ethnic Chinese Singaporeans or Taiwanese doing this sort of thing... We literally heard a story of a white American doing this exact thing just last year.[1] Nobody complained about America's cultural/political tendencies. Even though there's plenty of academic cheating here.[2] It was just about that white guy. The racism is in the double standard and confirmation bias. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Levandowski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Levandowski [2] https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/1-in-5-harvard-graduates-cheated-in-studies-survey-finds/100009 https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/1-in-5-harvard-gradua...
- candiodari 8y agoThe issue is that the Chinese government has corporate espionage as a policy goal. It's actually ridiculous on both sides: China gets spies into US companies that steal (sometimes on an ongoing basis) internal company documents, source code, ... and then "gives" it to Chinese companies "asking them" to use it, sometimes creating new companies in the process. That's the big deal. It's not racism, but of course most Chinese did not choose this organisation as their state, and they are where the rubber meets the road. Or to put a more direct answer on: yes, Chinese steal IP at a much higher rate than others.