4 ms·

I’m not familiar with the story around maglev but it is certainly true for conventional high speed rail in China. See stories detailing blatant IP theft and dec

I’m not familiar with the story around maglev but it is certainly true for conventional high speed rail in China. See stories detailing blatant IP theft and deceptive partnerships such as https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704814204575507353221141616 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704814204575507... or https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/alstom-and-siemens-show-how-not-to-deal-with-china-and-vestager https://www.bloombergquint.com/global-economics/alstom-and-s... I wonder how this happens. Is it the naivety of leadership at western corporations, or is it simple greed because those leaders may show short term results that boost their compensation? And of course, I have to wonder why western governments don’t restrict their corporations from risking their economic and military sovereignty in the future through these terrible partnerships. The same thing is happening in aerospace and it isn’t even new. For example China tried cloning a Boeing jet it acquired way back in 1980 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/05/09/china-said-to-clone-a-708-from-boeing-jet-it-brought/9561fa4e-cc69-48cd-9dad-24773cec3be2/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/05/09/c...). China’s more recent attempts are much more successful (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47689386 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-47689386) and although they rely on western avionics and engines, I am sure they’re busy trying to clone those as well. EDIT: found an article detailing IP competition and theft relating to HSR broadly, including maglev (https://itif.org/publications/2021/04/26/heading-track-impact-chinas-mercantilist-policies-global-high-speed-rail https://itif.org/publications/2021/04/26/heading-track-impac...)

glandium 5y ago
Note, you say "leadership of western corporations", but in the case of high speed rail, Japanese companies are involved too, and have fallen to the scam just as well.
oaiey 5y ago
The maglev was developed by Siemens in the 80s in Germany. It was called Transrapid. But we Germans were motivated to built a single railroad for it. So when Siemens went to China with it, we knew what would happen. Personally, i am kind of grateful that they use the technology instead that it rots away in some storage room in Munich at Siemens.

glandium 5y ago

Note, you say "leadership of western corporations", but in the case of high speed rail, Japanese companies are involved too, and have fallen to the scam just as well.

oaiey 5y ago

The maglev was developed by Siemens in the 80s in Germany. It was called Transrapid. But we Germans were motivated to built a single railroad for it. So when Siemens went to China with it, we knew what would happen. Personally, i am kind of grateful that they use the technology instead that it rots away in some storage room in Munich at Siemens.