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Alibaba Co-founder Says Many Americans 'Want To Stop China' From Upgrading Its Tech (cnbc.com)

With the threat of Trump's ever-looming trade war with China and his administration's sanctions on Chinese companies like ZTE, it's hard to remember a more contentious period between the two countries in recent times. Adding fuel to the conversation, an Alibaba co-founder alleged that many Americans want to stop China from upgrading its technology and from becoming more innovative. From a report: Chinese media outlets have repeatedly asserted that American complaints about the tech sector are really just efforts to slow the country's rise as a global power. "There's nothing wrong with a country wanting to upgrade its own manufacturing sector, go higher tech, be more innovative," Tsai said. "But then, from the Chinese perspective, what we're seeing is there are a lot of people in America that want to stop China from doing that." After three decades of producing low-end manufacturing goods, Tsai said, China recognizes the need to develop better technology, upgrade its manufacturing sector and focus more on value-added areas like robotics, aeronautics and high-tech medical equipment.

11 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Contentiousness by JBMcB · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it's hard to remember a more contentious period between the two countries in recent times.

    Well, Saudi Arabia is bombing the crap out of Yemen. Russia has been covertly sending troops into Ukraine. Israel and Iran are almost at war.

    So yeah, one country increasing tariffs on another is probably the most contentious thing going on right now.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:Contentiousness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Between the two countries means between China and the US. Are you that fucking stupid?

  2. Re:Well, we sure as hell can't innovate ourselves! by ranton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, we sure as hell can't innovate ourselves! So our only recourse is to try to stop other countries from innovating! No way can we allow someone a chance at bettering themselves if we're not able to steal the betterment for our own use.

    Regardless of the many problems the US has, not being able to innovate certainly isn't one of them. China is playing catch up in innovation, and who do you think they are trying to catch up to? The US is having a hard time dealing with not being the only game in town, but it is still top dog. Possibly not for long but it certainly still is today.

    While there is certainly a significant portion of Americans who simply want China to fail, most of us just don't want China to steal. Even that is a bit misguided though since every developing nation (including the early US) steals while catching up. Americans fundamentally have to realize we cannot rest on our laurels. The lead we have right now will diminish and then evaporate and we will need to compete on a level playing field. That is already true with many developed countries, and it will soon be true with China.

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    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  3. Maturity curve [Re:or...] by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Basically he's denying China cheats like the wind. To be fair, when USA industry was young, we played intellectual property games with Europe also.

    But when you become a trading super-power, your scrappy "street-smarts" 3rd-world tendencies need to be corrected or you will face retaliation. You can no longer fly under the radar. China has yet to kick its bad habits.

    1. Re:Maturity curve [Re:or...] by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every country steals tech. The French were notorious for bugging Air France flights and doing state level industrial espionage. A lot of early nuclear tech was stolen by the US from Britain. European and US car-makers "adopted" a lot of Japanese tech to make their vehicles more reliable, after accusing the Japanese of copying them.

      Now China is filing a lot of patents. They are really leading with electric vehicle tech, for example. A lot of European and Japanese manufacturers that missed the boat are turning to them now while their own domestic suppliers try to catch up.

      This is just the way of the world. Everyone steals from everyone else, countries that were developing eventually start leading in some areas. Korea used to be a source of cheap labour, now they are leading manufacturers of memory, displays, batteries, phones, some kinds of software...

      If anything, I much prefer the Chinese attitude towards patents and IP to the American one. They get on and innovate without worrying too much about rounded corners and vague, obscure and never-used patents. And actually the west isn't that different - we just waste more time and money looking for trivial variations to get around patents and IP.

      I worked on a sensor product that three short sampling periods. I asked why not just use one longer sampling period and it turned out it was to get around a patent that covered the complex detection algorithm, and was of no benefit.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  4. Americans want to stop China from upgrading... by Dr_b_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe they just want to stop having tech stolen and show up in Chinese products that largely look like clones of the stolen products that are in turn then sold back to the foreign markets at much lower cost. There is no way any american laws or tariffs would prevent or even could prevent China from having its own ideas, creating new product categories, and then selling them to other countries that would feel safe using them

  5. Re:"becoming more innovative" by WindBourne · · Score: 4, Insightful

    that is not accurate.
    Yes, China steals a great deal. BUT, that does not mean that CHina's innovation is not up and coming. It is a horrible mistake to claim otherwise.
    Just like Japan and India today, you have many ppl in CHina that are learning and are as innovative as any others.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. Not everything is U.S vs China by Dorianny · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ZTE broke an International embargo and then blatantly lied about implementing the remedies it had agreed to. There is a general unease with China's grown economic and military power but ZTE's case had absolutely nothing to do with any of that. Chinese companies need to learn that being cozy with the Chinese Communist party can't protect them in the world stage

  7. Re:More likely by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Not to mention, they Chinese aren't mentioning that their plans to "upgrade their technology" is by way of stealing the tech from all the other major western nations.

    We do the R&D on new ideas, they use espionage (been going on for decades) to steal it and then "upgrade" their systems, to compete back with us.

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    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  8. Re:Well, we sure as hell can't innovate ourselves! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1, Insightful

    EV innovation is coming from America.
    If you mean electric vehicle with EV, then no. america is decades behind Europe. Tesla made a new and better battery and manages to sell a nice set of cars ... but in the vehicle itself is nothing really innovative.+
    E.g. it still uses a classic connection between engine and wheels, instead of four wheels drive with 4 engines directly at the wheels. Why? Because ABS and other electronic controls of traction etc. are state of the art only on classic ICE based car designs. If you would "innovate" a "old school electric 4 wheels drive" you have to show that it has all the safety features an ICE car has. Hence: the "new EVs" are all not new but old tech with an electric engine.

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    Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  9. Re:or... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But you are not fighting that corrupt dictatorship, you are fighting the people there.

    If those people are actively working to get rid of their government, then I'm all for them. But they're not, so they're part of the problem. If they like it, great, but it makes us enemies. Tough shit.