US Senators Voice Concern Over Chinese Access To Intellectual Property (reuters.com)

Leaders of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on Tuesday they were concerned about what they described as China's efforts to gain access to sensitive U.S. technologies and intellectual property through Chinese companies with government ties. From a report: Senator Richard Burr, the committee's Republican chairman, cited concerns about the spread of foreign technologies in the United States, which he called "counterintelligence and information security risks that come prepackaged with the goods and services of certain overseas vendors. The focus of my concern today is China, and specifically Chinese telecoms (companies) like Huawei and ZTE that are widely understood to have extraordinary ties to the Chinese government," Burr said. Senator Mark Warner, the committee's Democratic vice chairman, said he had similar concerns. "I'm worried about the close relationship between the Chinese government and Chinese technology firms, particularly in the area of commercialization of our surveillance technology and efforts to shape telecommunications equipment markets," Warner said.

Comments

Re:We sold our soul long ago

[TheRaven64]

20 years ago, I attended a talk by a Sinologist who talked about Cocoa Cola's entry into China. The Chinese government had required that they partner with a Chinese company and produce their product locally, in 1984. The Chinese company then spent 10 years studying Cocoa Cola's products, workflow, supply chain, and so on until they understood it better than Cocoa Cola. Then they started producing their own versions, and used this as leverage to increase their ownership share of the joint venture. Anyone who engaged in this kind of 'partnership' after this point had no excuse for claiming that they were doing anything other than selling their company to the Chinese

Not the recipe, the process

[DrYak]

There is no secret to making "cola" {...} The Chinese did not learn to make cola by "stealing" Coke's "secret recipe".

What the above poster is trying to tell about is not the actual recipe of Coke's own spin on cola-based caffeined drinks.
(The recipe isn't actually that much a secret. e.g.: In several markets, local food and beverage law require the content to be explicitly stated on the label).

What is the key matter is that the Chinese owners of the outsourced manufacturing plant will analyse the *process* of manufacturing - i.e.: the methodology used by Coke to produce their drinks at industrial scale.
And that's the thing they can better : making a manufacturing plant better and more efficient at producing soda drinks.

To quote the relevant part :

The Chinese company then spent 10 years studying Cocoa Cola's products, workflow, supply chain, and so on until they understood it better than Cocoa Cola.

To make a much beloved /. car analogy :
they didn't copy the general concept of making a metal can box with 4 wheels and a motor on it.
they looked at how Ford's specific own-invented Ford process to mass-produce cars, they'll look into the basic feature sets that seem to interest customers and that manufacturer seem to concentrate on (everyone wants extra features like radio and cup holders)
then they'll get good at making not so bad knock-offs at a smaller price and craptastic "only in shape" copies, that sell at a fraction of the price but still somehow hold together long enough for the customer to buy them and only break down later on the way home.

Re:We sold our soul long ago

[Anonymous Coward]

I worked for Procter & Gamble 20+ years ago. Back then there was a project for P&G to start making Crest toothpaste in China, part of the entry in to that market. Well, long story short, we had to hand over all the IP related to Crest and the manufacturing lines to them to even get the 'right' to enter into the market, plus every tube of toothpaste sold there had to be manufactured there. What we did is get 1950's era line(s) back in working order and shipped them over, plus the old Crest recipe from same time. So both China and P&G benefited. China for jumpstarting their research into toothpaste and P&G entry into the market. Now many years later P&G is almost out of the market as local companies in China now have the 'inside' track on deals/market share, etc, etc.. So, if anyone thinks the Chinese play fair, you have your head in the sand, but the opposite is true as well, if US Corporations hadn't sold their soul and IP to China they wouldn't be in the pickle they are today, and the US as well.