3 ms·

Sorry, in my opinion spying on China's president, tracking source code on product lines and deep infiltration of a company is clearly crossing the line. IPR ski

• mpyne 13y ago
  For starters, this isn't "mass surveillance" on China, so maybe you should use the right buzzwords. :) Also, "IPR skirmishing" is actually worse I would think. Military/strategic intelligence-gathering is as old as Caeser (and for that matter, Sun Tzu...) and is well-recognized as legitimate (if distasteful). However even that doesn't directly affect the economy of either party. With "IPR skirmishing" it's possible to go almost straight to the acquisition phase of a particular tech without having to do the R&D, which can have substantial effect to the groups who actually did have to pay for that R&D.
  • austinz 13y ago
    Stealing technological secrets is older than you might think. China lost its monopoly on silk production and trade with the West after Byzantine monks smuggled silkworms out of China using their canes, defying an imperial edict forbidding such a thing.
    • mpyne 13y ago
      ! Great point, I'd quite forgotten that since high school but you're right, that was an incredibly big swing in geopolitical affairs of the time.