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Chinese Scientist Admits To Stealing Chip Research
An anonymous reader writes "A prominent Chinese scientist, one of the founders of the chip manufacturing industry in the country, has admitted to stealing his research." From the article: "Chen Jin, a dean of Shanghai's prestigious Jiaotong University and the leader of a government-funded high-tech research project, was dismissed from his university posts this week and stripped of other government titles and perks. The government also said that Chen had been permanently banned from taking part in any government-funded science projects. In a statement Friday, Jiaotong University--one of the nation's elite schools--said, 'Chen Jin has breached the trust of being a scientist and educator. His behavior is despicable.'"
"A prominent Chinese scientist, one of the founders of the chip manufacturing industry in the country, has admitted to stealing his research."
Not a big surprise for a country that doesn't respect intellectual property.
Yeah it's possible but it's the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. Lets ruin this guy's carreer while at the same time ruin any credibility of a product that works that was created legitimately?? They Chinese government would have to be idiots to do something like this. They have enough problems with intellectual property issues.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
This exposes one of the great flaws of a command economy: the politicization of everything. People get appointed to positions because of government connections and ideaology. Unfortunately, these appointees often aren't the most qualified people, and they are usually amoral. They'll do or say whatever they must to get what they want from the political machine. I spent several years working in Russia and saw this effect up close. We see the same thing in the United States when government gets involved in economic development activities. Who was this IP stolen from? How did it happen? How much will China be paying in damages? This sounds like a story with explosive potential.
That would make China admit that they were wrong, and i don't believe that's how the chinese government works.
IP theft in China reminds me of Casablanca:
-"I am shocked, shocked to find gambling in this establishment!"
-"Your winning's sir."
"Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
Most of the modern chinese economy is now based on stolen technology.
The mark of a mature person is not creating arbitrary criteria for considering others mature.
China admit that they were wrong, and i don't believe that's how the chinese government works.
I think that applies to just about every government. When was the last time you heard any government admit it was wrong. The only time this tends to happen is many years after the fact and even then you they won't really admit THEY were wrong. They always have some excuse or other person who the true blame lies with.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
"His behavior is despicable."
How cute. The country that uses Buddhist monasteries as target practice for rockets thinks someone is despicable.Because China is trying very hard to become an economic super-power. Copying technology from other nations won't get them that, because they'll always be playing second fiddle. Instead, they want to produce technology that exceeds the rest of the world so that they can take the place of the United States and Europe as the source for all new technology.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Anyone following the press sees almost daily reports of Chinese industrial espionage circles working around the world. It is not just chips, but formulas, software, manufacturing techniques, and many trade secrets.
China is not the only country that does this. There have been serious incidents with Russia, Japan, France, etc.
However, in the case of countries with which the US does not have a defense treaty, wholesale theft of technology and related trade secrets risks strengthening the military establishment of those countries. This makes it a national security issue for the US.
Unfortunately, even if exposed, the chances in the US of getting caught, prosecuted, and having to pay for industrial espionage are so low that for all practical purposes US technology is free of charge. You probably have a better chance of winning the local lottery than getting punished.
The problem occurs when foreign espionage organizations target private [non-military related] companies that do not have adequate security measures.
In terms of this particular case, the reaction of the Chinese government is out of character to its past actions, which have somewhat ignored wholesale violation of intellectual property rights, and have encouraged massive collection of economic and technical information from the West.
There is no way other than the use of industrial espionage to explain the short amount of time China took in developing its space program and supercomputer capabilities.
In this chip case, the reaction seems motivated by one of two factors: 1/ it is an emotional reaction from someone higher up who felt duped by the scam of the "researcher", 2/ it is a politicized attempt at public relations -- one of those highly publicized "crack downs" that periodically emerge from China before everything gets back to normal.
It's really a non-event. There are probably dozens of other laboratories working right now on other pilfered technologies. In the long run, however, China is graduating enough engineers to surpass the West within about 25 years. In which case, all of this will seem rather transitional in nature.
Well, it worked for Japan, that's for sure.
The first step is to catch up. That's usually done by having foreign companies manufacture in your country. The second is joint ventures, where foreign companies offer the money, you create a company in your country and manufacture in license. That's also already achived.
Next would be to have your students and your "brain power" catch up, this is either done by sending your students abroad or by hiring high class teachers. China will most likely opt for the latter.
This worked for Japan, and the only reason that Japan didn't simply take over the world economy is that Japan lacks two essential factors: Manpower and resources. They are quite limited in space, and thus workforce, and there are almost no resources on their islands.
It's very different with China. And once they completed step three... good night Europe.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It is much more indideous than that. China has an international reputation for having a lack of respect for patents or copyrights. Reguardless of you opinion on "intellectual property," they copy research results and produce product at a much decreased cost because they do not have to pay for the R&D. (I am sure there are other factors, but that is the most significant to this story.)
China knows this, and wants to divest the responsibility from the state. How so best to do this than to blame an individual. A doctor bent on individual success stuped to the evil of stealing research results, instead of taking the long, arduous road of independent research that would have enriched him, his colleagues and students, and therefore, the State. Of course, this is true for any scientist in any country in any field.
Is it the truth? Maybe, or maybe I just have my capitalist tinfoil hat on. Will we ever really be able to know? They censor google, they run the press, they make the truth. Do you really think Tiananmen Square is as well known in China as Kent State is in the US? What do you think?
(Yeah, the tinfoil is starting to spark...)
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Zero chance.
This is CHINA we are talking about here. They don't need to fake anything. If they want him gone, he's gone... nobody will ask questions. No reason is necessary.
Besides, this isn't exactly a surprise. From the first minute this story hit the presses, people were speculating that this is exactly what happened. China isn't exactly known for discouraging this kind of thing, either.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Especially in regards to the Soviet space program, while I do want to give credit where credit's due, I think it's also worth pointing out the number of Soviet failures and accidents; it seems to me that a lot of their progress can be attributed to playing fast-and-loose, and taking chances that NASA wasn't willing to take. Occasionally, these paid off, although even before their economy collapsed, they had fallen behind to the point where I don't think their development methodology was exactly validated.
Not to mention, their space program was jump-started by a lot of German rocket technology that they crated up and took East with them. (The U.S.'s was as well, we got a lot of personnel, although the Russians got some of of the best hardware and facilities.)
Of the examples you cited, Laika was an arguable failure (the dog died after only a few hours, long before it was supposed to and without getting much useful data back), Salyut 1 is notable, although I feel it necessary to point out that the crew never made home alive -- not strictly a problem with Salyut itself, but you have to wonder if the pace they were working at didn't contribute to lack of QC elsewhere.
Sputnik 1 is definitely a landmark and worth of recognition, and in general the Soviet space program had a lot going for it, but it also had a rather alarming rate of failures. So in considering their progress, one has to consider the cost it was earned at. (I'd say the exact same thing about some other areas of technological development, for instance, their submarines.)
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Hunh? Nowhere in the linked news article does it say that Chen has admitted anything. To the contrary, it says he could not be reached for comment. A correct headline would be:
It's bad enough that both the summary and the headline contain such a glaring and defamatory error, but how come none of the more than one hundred previous posters noticed this? Sheesh.
Actually this isn't true. Japan did not allow foreign corporations to setup shop. Instead they allowed non-Japanese firms to partner with Japanese firms. GM, Ford, US Steel and IBM did not setup factories they had agreements with companies like Toyota, Mazda, Nippon Steel. Taiwan and Korea did something similiar.
Japan didn't take over the world economy, because of the amount of cronyism between corporations and businesses and the lending of cheap yen. Which is exactly what China is doing with it's state owned enterprises.
Japan's labor problems are more due to discrimination toward Japanese women and age discrimination If Japanese stopped it's discrimination toward women and age, Japan would NOT have a labor shortage problem.
I lived and work in Japan for Japanese companies for several years and saw female accountants with the equivalent of a CPA serve tea for middle managers. I"ve seen companies refuse to hire people, just because of their age, even if they are the most qualified for the job.
After years of reading Pravda, you learn Commie-speak.
My translation of this article is: this poor schmuck has fallen out of favor with the Central Committee. After being ordered to replicate western technologies, the Red Chinese now humiliate him as a token whipping boy to allay US/European concerns over intellectual properties.
This poor guy is probably going to be shot and his family will be charged for the bullet. Chances are we'll probably never knows what his real crime was.
Is that a SCSI connector or are you just glad to see me?