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EU Wants Power To Block China's Tech Buying
itwbennett writes "In an interview with German daily paper Handelsblatt, the EU's industry commissioner, Antonio Tajani, said he wants the power to block China from buying up European tech companies. Tajani envisions an authority along the same lines as the United States' Committee on Foreign Investment and would determine 'if the acquisition (of a company) with European know-how by a private or public foreign company represented a danger or not.'"
And that is just for starters.
The fact is, that the west needs to say enough is enough. I support free trade, but not when it is one sided.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Personally, I do not mind if they become #1. I object because they are cheating the whole way and it is obvious that top pols are in a cold war with the west. And yet, of the flower childs running around the west scream give China a chance. I say, let those flower childs (and the GD CEOs that move the jobs there) to MOVE TO CHINA AND STAY THERE.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
It actually resembles a lot how US got into power. They ignored European copyrights completely and in the same way took what they needed without giving back. Karmas law, eh?
And yet, of the flower childs running around the west scream give China a chance.
Who are you talking about here? The "flower children" are pretty much screaming at China in the name of a Free Tibet and the Dalai Lama. The "give China a chance" crowd are the über corporatist/capitalists.
... and then they built the supercollider.
China is pretty much where Japan was 30-40 years ago. Look where Japan is today and that's where China will be in a few decades.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
More to the point they have a huge underclass and are facing fundamental resource limits which will prohibit improving the lives of those people. Limits like the supply of energy, food, water and land. Industrialisation will make a few Chinese people rich but if the wealth doesn't trickle down (I don't think it can) then the political situation will become very unstable.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I googled "Clinton accord" and got nothing like what you describe. Could you please direct me to the proper references?
Thanks in advance.
Actually, the US got into power by waiting out until all major powers in Europe were badly bloodied by WWII, and then picking a side and trading old equipment for world dominance. See, e.g. destroyers for bases, lend-lease, etc.
Then, after the war, the US was easily able to attract talent by money - the so called "brain drain".
It is doubtful copyrights were even in the game, especially given the fact that the rules were largely synchronized immediately postwar, and the copyrights mostly covered literature anyway.
China has been printing Yuans like they are going out of style. QE2 is designed to shake China off of America's coat tail. The longer that they tie their Yuan to the dollar, the worst that things will get for them. Shortly, they will see massive inflation. And if they do NOT untie the Yuan from the dollar, then I expect that QE3 will be done. THAT will run China's inflation up to MINIMUM of 40% with ZERO chance of slowing that puppy down.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
http://articles.cnn.com/2000-10-10/politics/clinton.pntr_1_wto-membership-china-global-trade-regime?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
The US can. Stop accepting items from China which don't meet our safety and environmental regulations. And put a tariff on their items sufficient to make them effectively as expensive as they would be without the illegal Yuan manipulation that China has engaged in.
As it is, China barely has any advantage at all in terms of cost of labor. In fact a number of companies are bringing their Chinese operations back to the US because they were spending more on labor than they were in the US.
And the only thing they'll accomplish is they'll force China to use it's covert/secret agents to buy European tech companies. If China wants to buy a company nobody and nothing can stop it. They'll have their European shell company set up with their puppet CEO who will covertly buy the company in the name of China. Then years later China will overtly take control.
It's called a hostile takeover.
China is supposed to do everything to become number 1.
Since when did Americans become such wimps? Every nation cheats to win. It's called espionage.
They don't have to be covert or secret. The housing bubble in Australia has been driven to a large extent by Chinese buyers. The property is actually owned by Chinese born Australian citizens but the money is coming from China.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
The modern version of the cotton gin was created by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 to mechanize the cleaning of cotton. The invention was granted a patent on March 14, 1794.
I do not say that their free trade should be restricted. I say that as long as they are not obeying the treaties/laws that they agreed to, THEN there is no reason for us to honor our side. Free trade is about TWO WAY TRADING. CHina is not about 2 way trade. It is about gaining it quickly and with interest in the real issues. They are in a cold war with us and using the economy against the west. It is time for us to stop this.
One way to pull our electronics out of CHina is to get western companies to move it back. However, QE2 is designed to do that for us. It will shake China lose, or they will suffer massive inflation.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Why not?
It's a libertarian's dream so long as they don't say anything bad about the government. Those with the wealth (or a company with wealth) have far more rights than those of the average individual and the government doesn't stop them with pesky minimum wage, safety and emissions laws. What are you waiting for? All you guys that complain about having to pay too much for staff, about how unions always get in the way, how the government won't let your company pollute and how the shit hits the fan when a worker is injured or dies - just shut up and move to China.
This comes from my wife's relatives and friends. They are primarily Malaysian born Chinese with Australian PR or citizenship. And yes they have a lot of trouble saving to buy. They see a lot of mainland Chinese born people buying property purely to invest. Additionally my wife works as an architect and she knows of mainland Chinese businesses which are actively investing in the Australian property market. They do projects typically between five and 10 million AUD. Usually high density unit development. She looked at working for them but they weren't paying enough to justify the risk.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Uh, "wholesale destruction" isn't what's happening to the US, and China can take little credit for the decline that is happening. At worst, the US is having a slump, caused by incompetent leadership and short-sighted financial policy, combined with a media that doesn't "report" the news so much as it "spins" the news.
Yes, but the reason the US machines were able to take off is because the European mills were all destroyed or put out of business by the people who worked, owned, or invested in the manually run non-industrialized mills. If the Europeans hadn't so soundly rejected the new processes then industry in the US would have floundered by being unable to produce goods at competitive prices.
Today we remember these angry Europeans -- who are infamous for storming the new mills and breaking the machines -- for the name of one of the most outspoken among them: George Ludd. Yes, they were the Luddites.
Yes, the plans were stolen away to the US, but they were not being used in Europe because the technology was socially unacceptable!
The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
33828*1331460000 / (47123*307006550)
ans = 3.1133
Right now US defense spending is 6.8 times the next largest competitor (China). Imagine if China out-spent the US by a factor of 3 instead. It would be a different world.
Yes, real anecdotes but of little consequence to a larger system. It's just like a few real investors from Sydney buying land in Queensland but it's not enough to drive the bubble.
It's a weaker link than a conspiracy theory of saying that the Chinese run the Liberal Party via Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest and just as unlikely to make a difference in the long run. The mining sector is where there is a lot more investment than the trivial percentage of the housing market. Radio Rich Gay Redneck talkback subjects shouldn't be taken too seriously because it's all about getting people angry for entertainment.
Economics. Its all a lot more civilized than violence.
But lets stop trying to win petty economic battles in lost wars... Democracies always seem to resort to trade restrictions when confronted by another majority. Its no fun anymore when you are suddenly out numbered by your own ideology.
Human beings are prone to human nature in any and all cultural landscapes. I read that in a fortune cookie (an American custom).
Personally, I like Chinese Food, and I look forward to prosperity and success for all nationalities no matter what economic policies are negotiated, or implemented. Just make sure not to squander life or liberty if wealth belongs to someone else... Other people are people, too.
You support free trade but you insist their trade be restricted. Personally I'm against free trade. It never made sense when it was first proposed and it's brought a lot of grief to the first world. It's one thing having free trade with countries like Canada and the US or even much of Europe and North America where the economies are similar. Merging with a third world country means the first world country has to drop their standard of living to compete.
Well, one of the key theorems in trade is that it's beneficial to exchange goods as long as there's a relative difference in productivitiy, regardless if one country is superior to another in every way. That is, if we can produce good A much faster than China and good B a tiny bit faster than China, we should specialize in producing A and export that while importing B for a net gain compared to producing B ourselves while China does the opposite. As such it's not unreasonable that rich countries have trade with poor countries.
When you add unemployment it starts being complicated because the above assumes both countries are maximizing their production. Unemployed people aren't productive which means China is better off producing both goods rather than importing from the US as long as they aren't capacity limited, while the US is now hooked on cheap imports and can't produce them domestically at a competitive price. So you get a trade imbalance, in theory some of this could still be balanced as China buys other things from other countries for US dollars but in practise it doesn't work out.
However, one thing that people seem to think which is wrong is that China is not particularly interested in a US downfall, at least not short term. They're more interested in picking the crown jewels by saying "Um yeah cheap labor we got that, decent tech level we got that, what exactly do you have that we'd really need to get from the outside?" Rare earth minerals or oil resources could be good examples of that. Specific pieces of technology they don't have. Basically it's about sniping the valuables while the US is spending their huans filling up the Wal-Marts.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
That sad old "narrative" pops up in every single China thread on Slashdot, ever. Hint: the US did not "get into power" that way, and China's wholesale technology theft is orders of magnitude larger than that practiced by a 19th century agricultural nation. *sigh*
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Let's do China one better, and buy its tech companies and loot their assets! What's that you say? China has laws on the books prohibiting the sale or investment of companies which may damage its national interest? Entire industries are restricted? And there are parts of China's economy totally prohibited from any foreign investment whatsoever? Surely Europe and America can trust this country and not apply any reciprocal policies that fuck over China as much as China fucks over foreign firms.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
While the US didn't become one of the world's only two superpowers until after World War II, the US had already become a major economic player by the end of the 19th century. European literature of the time is filled with angst that those uncouth ex-colonials were buying up everything and signalling the demise of Europe.
And that is 10 times more worrisome because the right analogy is still there in history. It is not USA, it is Japan.
That is an analogy that is making me shudder for a moment.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
Zero governments are elected in Europe, they are appointed by parliament. In a few cases the head of the government is elected, but the normal way is that the prime minister is appointed by the speaker of the parliament / king / queen and then forms the government. The government is then approved by parliament.
The same happens in the EU. The commission is appointed by the states and then subject to the approval of parliament. The commission is further fully accountable to the parliament. The parliament have the powers of no confidence votes.
I do not claim to be an expert in how the Chinese politburo is assembled, but it is certainly not subject to the wills of an elected parliament.
"Civis Europaeus sum!"
QE == Qualitative Easing, also known as dumping currency
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Flower children? You kidding? Nobody likes China. Trust me on that one, even the "left" people I know despise them for "betraying Marxism and turning it into Fascism". There is no "give China a chance" sentiment amongst anyone.
Anyone but corporations wanting to produce cheap crap, that is.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Well Germany was the most succesful post war economy in Europe.
The southeast (that is the places where former slave owners live) has been one of the worst off areas of the country until this generation, and its because they were DECADES late starting a modern economy BECAUSE of the slave trade.
Final note: Props go to the UK here. The economics of slavery would not have been nearly so bad if the UK hadn't cut off the supply of new slaves from africa as quickly as they did.
Yes, absolutely, getting the footing of UK's naval might post-WWII had absolutely nothing to do with the US gaining super-power status.
Not having its cities bombed to smithereens, not having its economy devastated, not having lost a large percentage of its population was not a factor either.
Grabbing a large amount of science and technology for free from friend and foe as spoils of war and repayment for services rendered, and sucking up the best brains just because US offered better conditions wasn't a factor either.
If it is all about population and resources, how come Japan is not where India is? How come Russia lost its super-power status? How come Africa is still largely starving?
Yours is a very simple world.