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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.'"
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."
We see the same thing in the United States when government gets involved in economic development activities.
Actually the United States government's involvement in economic development activities is one of the primary factors of the late 20th century computer revolution.
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.
If I had mod points, I'd give both parent and grandparent credit for insightful statements. The claim that politicization of the economy is responsible for bad and bogus ideas making it through is almost certainly true. The Army Corps of Engineers is a shining example of that. Not only that, but economic development money almost always involves government picking the winner somehow - that's a tough pill to swallow, and something we should always be wary yet. At the same time, there's no doubt that government investment has been critical to the development of nearly every technology we use today. Barring a few altruistist or self-proclaimed visionaries, private capital simply does not have the incentive or wherewithall to make 20 year investments. The only conclusion I can come to is we need good government - transparent, accountable, and well overseen. And that takes a lot of effort from the citizenry, which why the notion that government is fundamentally incapable and hence should be dismanteled frustrates me so much. Government is only as capable as we make it, and it may be less efficient at delivering goods and services, but it's about the only choice we have for making critical long-term investments, so we'd better work on making it as good and efficient as we can.
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.)
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