Brother-in-law? Sometimes the link isn't so indirect. For example, GM has a partnership (since foreign manufacturers aren't permitted to have majority ownership

Brother-in-law? Sometimes the link isn't so indirect. For example, GM has a partnership (since foreign manufacturers aren't permitted to have majority ownership (last I checked)) with Chery Motors. Chery has access to everything produced in that plant, including tooling, tech, designs, etc. Chery takes this and uses it in their own plants to produce cars that compete directly with GM (and they export these cars too). This is why many manufacturers use last-gen tech in their products within China.