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Chinese Media, Government Confirm Apple Research Center in Beijing Tech Corridor (appleinsider.com)
An anonymous reader writes:According to Chinese media, Apple is launching its first research and development center in the country, located in long-time technology incubation area Zhongguancun Science Park, Beijing. While Apple has yet to comment on the matter, a statement issued by the Zhongguancun Park Management Committee to several Chinese media outlets has identified Apple's presence in the area. According to reports collated by Digitimes, the center has a budget of about $15 million, with a long-term expenditure goal of $45 million over the next few years. The center is allegedly seeking to hire around 500 workers, with no particular focus beyond Apple products and software. The move mirrors similar setups in Japan, and Israel.
Given what is known about China and how they literally have pulled the biggest heist since in human history I do not understand why Apply is doing this. The annual losses in IP that the US experiences are comparable to the current annual level of U.S. exports to Asia—over $300 billion. According to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, If IP were to receive the same protection overseas that it does here, the American economy would add millions of jobs. Countless companies have moved to China and within a decade seen competitors steal their trade secrets and come out with almost identical products. What is even more baffling is that Apple is obsessed with secrecy. Does it not care that both the Chinese government and industry are hellbent on nullifying it?
Its iBooks and movies were disallowed early in 2016. The Chinese government uses 'security audits' to hack both Apple and the US government. In Beijing, a municipal tribunal issued an injunction earlier this year barring the sale of its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Beijing's Intellectual Property Office ruled against Apple in a patent dispute brought by a smaller Chinese handset maker. Both cases were fictitious. As a matter of fact (something monumentally unimportant to the Chinese government) it was clear that Apple developed the technology first.
Perhaps this is some attempt to stop the Chinese state from openly discriminating against Apple? I very much doubt this will work over the long run. I highly doubt that in 2026 Apple will be flourishing commercially in China.
I once had a lengthy conversation with a member of China's elite. She came from a wealthy family and her fiance had been a Harvard engineering grad student. She was exceptionally well read and well traveled. She even knew about the contributions of Otto von Bismarck . (How many Americans would know the same?) I asked her whether the US could come to some arrangement with China and even cede the South China Sea and East Asia as a sphere of influence including the artificial islands in it. And that after each country had satisfied each others needs they could cooperate for world peace and stability. She responded that China was a rising power and the US was a declining one, that it was for China to 'take' whatever it wanted, that war was inevitable between such nations, and that she had no wish for dialogue. She exemplified the ruthless determination for hegemony that is widespread throughout the Chinese elite, be it economic, political, cultural, or military.
I wish American companies would get with reality on this issue. People in 100 years will look back at the Monroe Doctrine in the nineteenth century or even the brief period of US hegemony from 1989 through 2003 and perceive those periods as golden ages when compared with the ruthless Chinese subjugation that is only just beginning.