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China Opens Door For Tesla and Other Foreign Automakers To Produce Electric Vehicles (electrek.co)

Despite its strong protectionism laws in place that require any automaker wanting to establish production capacity in the country to partner and share its technology with a local manufacturer, China is proposing to relax laws. In an attempt to accelerate electric vehicle production in the country and fight its air pollution problem, China is now proposing to relax those laws for what they call "new energy vehicles," a.k.a. electric vehicles, in order to attract more foreign investments. From a report: The new rules are expected to open the door to Tesla and other automakers who recently expressed desires to establish manufacturing capacity in China to produce electric vehicles. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce released the new policy last week, and it is seeking public comment until next month. The new rules could go into effect soon after.

7 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Partner and Share = Give up IP by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

    China wants free IP, and even next quarter myopic CEOs no longer falling for "partner and share" scam.

  2. Re:For once pragmatism trumps policy by PCM2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have they seriously tried anything as far as legislative remedies? You'd think a totalitarian government could force people to comply with whatever regulations it wants.

    California had a terrible smog problem in the 1970s and early 1980s. The entire Los Angeles area (including Disneyland, for example) had air that was smothered with a visible brown haze. Even the Bay Area was getting bad. We passed a bunch of laws, force people to comply with them e.g. by requiring catalytic converters in all new vehicles and refusing to register vehicles that haven't had their emissions checked. Today the air quality has improved immensely.

    If any government can do the same, it's China. They just lack the will. Moreover, it may turn out that vehicles aren't even their biggest problem -- their crony-capitalist industries may be just as much to blame, and who wants to regulate them?

    No, this move is far more likely to be about getting their hands on the technology so they can steal it.

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    Breakfast served all day!
  3. I thought protectionism doesn't work by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    Well, China is using protectionism quite successfully to employ their people and give an advantage to their country. I thought it didn't work! Now they're "relaxing" the law. Of course, there are no specifics, and Chinese laws are notorious for being interpreted on the spot by local officials. Five cities have five different ways of implementing the exact same law.

    I guess it's just weird for me, as an American, to see a national government helping its people. Even if it's with a non-working idea like protectionism. I'm just used to, for example, being told by our First Lady that she had never been proud of our country, and she has lost all hope in our country. I just assume without thinking that every government in the world is like this. It's a shock to the system to see a government like China's appear to actually make moves to benefit their own people.

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    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:I thought protectionism doesn't work by JeffAtl · · Score: 3, Informative

      Protectionism works just fine - the 90 million chinese workers employed in industry as a testament to that.

      Free trade only raises the standard of living of all parties if everyone is playing by the same rules - asymmetrical trade relationships don't work.

  4. Re:Trump! Trump! by JeffAtl · · Score: 3, Informative

    If Telsa or anyone else is naive enough to go through with this type of deal, what is Trump supposed to do about it?

    Trump's plans are (1) to end the asymmetrical trade deals that the last 4 four presidents have given us and (2) push to eliminate the existing tax code provisions that make it more economical to move manufacturing offshore and then import back in to the US. The US is pretty much alone in having such an inverted tax structure.

  5. Re:For once pragmatism trumps policy by Cyberax · · Score: 2

    Most of the pollution in China is from coal powerplants and various industrial plants. They can't really do much about them in the near future even if they are willing to take a hit on the economy growth (which they are not). In more distant future, China is expanding renewable power generation, nuclear power and natural gas power plants.

    Cars are not really a big problem in cities right now, most of them have effective emission control systems. But in future they are going to become more significant. Interestingly, electric-powered bikes and scooters are already insanely popular because gas-powered ones are too expensive because of regulations.

  6. Re:Trump! Trump! by Stinky+Cheese+Man · · Score: 2

    So, no supporting evidence. That is what I thought. Thank you for confirming.