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Joan Vredik Broadley
Worked at EOG Resources (company)Updated 2y
How exactly does China steal US technology?
When my son and I visited China in the year 2000 part of our tour was to the then-under construction Three Gorges Dam. The project was of particular interest to we Canadians because China had bought two massive electrical generators to install in the dam.
As part of the deal, China required that they have the technology rights to produce copies of those generators (technology transfer agreements) and they successfully did so to produce the many other generators required.

I believe that many purchases by China of out-of-country technology has the technology transfer agreement written into the contract. This does not meet the definition of “stealing” but seems to be a very shrewd business practice that benefits China
for the long term future.

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Chen Yu
· December 22, 2019
I don’t know much about generators. But businesses want to transfer technologies. It could make their design defacto standards and when customers have special need, they don’t have to adjust themselves and can still sell parts for modified designs.
Also patents expire after about two decades. So patent holders have the tendency to sell, when there is still value. This will backfire only when you cannot keep innovating, and others can copy old models and the old models work just as good. And this is
what happens when lawyers & finance personals are taking control, instead of engineers.

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Crystal Chiara
· February 7, 2020
Thank you for explaining. I never understood why foreign suppliers would want to transfer technology if there was nothing in it for them. Trade is not charity so they do gain and benefit from that transfer too albeit with a longer term prospective. I
think there is a huge misnomer in the West mainly through Trump and other propaganda that the Chinese are just ‘stealing’ ideas and technology which I am sure does happen to an extent not just in China but rest of the world too.

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Andrew Goh
· February 9, 2020
The current World Intellectual Property System, covering patents, designs and copyrights etc, is developed, established and structured to help the world progress technologically and thus economically.

Yes, we should reward inventors and innovators, but also not to allow them to “hoard” their inventions. What good does it benefit the world if intellectual property is not shared? Some “copycat behavior” may be permitted as long as licensing or
technology transfer fees are paid to the original inventor. The quantum of the fees should be decided and finalized in a legally-binding contract, after negotiation, by the parties involved.

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Marlin Claxton
· December 3
The companies do not care where they make their money, only about marketshare. Why should an American chip maker sell to a rival the same technology funded by the American taxpayer with our government agreeing? China “steals or coerces technology
transfers, and makes a product without the costs of research and development, and over the long run undercuts the product’s developers price.

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Gerald Fishel
· March 16, 2020
Lol is that the line they’re peddling in China? That when China refuses to allow a company to do business in China unless they transfer their technology, it’s because companies want to do it? And what, they’re just acting when they complain about
it?

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David Arnold
· March 18, 2020
I suppose those companies can say no if they refuse to transfer the technology. This is normal business negotiation isn’t it? Also they wanted to do business in China and make money there first didn’t they? I think it is totally fair for the Chinese
to ask for whatever they wanted.

As far as I know Japanese companies only agreed to transfer older models which were good enough for the Chinese.

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Jonathan Chong
· July 12, 2020
These people are like crying rape after mutually agreed 1 night stand. Not worthy of anyone's pity.

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Desmond Wong
· November 27
This is the business world, not dream world. You want access to a huge market, you give and take. You want to marry me my dear, i want a bungalow. Isnit not the same. China is a shrewd country where business is concerned

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Skywalker
· June 8, 2020
I didn’t know those companies had a gun pointed to their heads when they negotiated the contracts with their Chinese customers.

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David Martin
· December 28, 2020
It seems many companies and countries under-estimated Chinese engineering. When they signed the technology transfer agreements, they probably thought it would take decades for the Chinese to make any headway, so it was safe. The fact is it takes a lot of
knowledge and brainpower to make copies of a technically complicated piece of engineering. The Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2006, no one understood the talent and resolve China had back then.

It’s not all bad. I, for one, think there should be free exchange of ideas with good compensation of course. Humanity could progress far faster with less restrictions. China seems to be ahead in some very important fields, quantum communications for
instance (great for secure financial transfers, imagine the commerce that could benefit from that), and crystal growth for ultraviolet lasers, we could be beneficiaries too.

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Gerry Roberts
· December 11
Don’t forget the number of young Chinese nationals who come to the US and Canadian universities to get a high level education and bring that knowledge back to China.

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Charles Ang
· December 22, 2019
It's a sign of weakness when the West has cried foul at the Chinese, seeing it as a stealing of their IP. In fact, they're more than happy to hand over the know-how to their counterparts for a piece of business pie. This is what in the business world
called: win-win deals, fair and square.

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Joan Vredik Broadley
· December 25, 2019
Yes, there’s the rub. Win-win deals - Trump does not believe in those at all.

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KevinFlynn
· Wed
So Trump re-negotiates trade deals with the Chinese which had us paying far higher import tariffs on their materials then they paid on ours and you're whining about it (in 2021 nonetheless). It amazes me how people like you just say things out of emotion
with no knowledge of the facts. Read a book lady.

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Hans Vandertouw
· Thu
For more than 40 years American Companies, will the full support of the U.S. Congress, have been moving basically all consumer product manufacturing and then some, to China and other low cost countries, out of pure greed!

That technology would be copied or stolen by the Chinese was a no brainer!

China is flush with money and had a fast growing economy for many decades, while the U.S. has the largest debt ever and economy growth has been marginal!

NOT China’s fault but rather America’s self-inflicted wounds, caused by corrupt U.S. Corporations and an almost to the core corrupt U.S. Congress!!

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Felix Su
· December 23, 2019
They don’t. They buy it. They either write it into the contracts for transfer of technology or they employ experts that in their field to build the tech.

China spent $28 BILLION dollars last year on licensing fees to the West. It is higher than any other country. That’s $28,000,000,000 dollars just on licensing fees. If they’re stealing, they’re doing a terrible job.

Did they do so in the past? Yes. Are there unscrupulous Chinese merchants doing this? yes. There are also unscrupulous Western merchants doing this. Any IP holder can go to US or European courts and have the court order an injunction to stop imports.

They can even go to Chinese courts and stop it in the Chinese market. M&M Mars just won a case against a Chinese copycat who claim he was selling W&W candies. The Chinese court ordered an injunction to stop all sale of W&W in China.

Just as I can sell Superman T-shirts without a license from Warner Bros and it is up to WB to stop me. It is up to the IP holder to stop the merchant.

Amazon does NOT and will NOT police for you. China also will not do so. It is the sad fact of life. You, as the IP holder have to use the law top stop other from infringing on your IP.

As fast as tech. Most of it is not stolen.

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Luke Wang
· December 23, 2019
Unfortunately, this is now called “FORCED” technology transfer, which to many in the West, including Canadians are basically the same as stealing. Just read any comment sections on Canadian news site when this topic comes up.

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Felix Su
· December 23, 2019
Forced my ass. Kawasaki didn’t like the terms and went home. They didn’t sign. Didn’t sell high speed trains. Did NOT transfer anything. No one is forcing any company to sign. It’s only forced if someone puts a gun to your head, literally.

The reason they sign is because they know technology has a shelf life. Holding onto it doesn’t make money. Someone else will sign and the tech will become outdated.

The reason the West calls it that is because they want it both ways. Make money only under their conditions.

Kawasaki’s high speed rail tech is now obsolete. China’s home grown high speed rail from Alstom, Siemens, and one other company I can’t remember, is now the best in the world. It’s not stolen because their tech is based on old tech. It is not
tech from those companies.

It’s like claiming Huawei’s 5G tech is stolen. Considering that it uses a different EM band than Ericsson or Nokia, and it’s better. Claiming that it is stolen is ridiculous.

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Louis Ong
· August 27, 2020
Felix, thanks for clearing up some of the purposeful misinformation here on the forum. I am glad you called it for what it is. I am sick and tired of hearing about forced technology transfer. All the auto companies that are in China make most of their
profits there. Who would not want to be in China ahead of others? Last year, Starbucks and Macdonalds repatriated $760 billion in profits back to the US. Who would not want a business like that?

If you write a song, it has a value if people want it. If it is a hit song the value is very high. If you don’t sell it or collect royalties, then it decreases in value very quickly. Try selling a 10-year-old song. China is a unique market. Its middle
class is something like 600 million people and they are online. Would you not want to have a crack at that market? There is an entry fee and its a free market negotiation for the right to get into that market. Why do idiots call it something dirty and
illegal? If you want to enter a country like Canada, nobody would ask you for technology transfer because we are just too small. It's not because we are too kind or just. It’s that our market is just not worth that much.

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Felix Su
· August 28, 2020
How can it be forced?!? Did China send the PLA to the US headquarters of these companies, pointed a gun at their heads, and forced them to go to China? No.

They went willingly knowing the conditions. The funny thing is that China isn’t even doing that anymore. They are pretty much caught up. So now anyone can go to China. No tech transfers.

Tesla is a wholly owned company by Tesla. No tech transfer.

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Luke Wang
· December 23, 2019
Well, good luck trying to explain that concept to people in the West….I’ve tried and it simply doesn’t work.

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Marlin Claxton
· October 6, 2020
Chinese technology theft (computer hacking, in person espionage from Chinese exchange ”students”) is why most of their major weapon systems look like those of America. Think American F-35, Predator drones and Aegis missile defenses. The Chinese even
copy American mistakes. Whatever the Chinese cannot buy or bully to get, they steal.

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Felix Su
· October 6, 2020
China’s stealth aircraft does not look remotely like the F-35. I suggest you go talk to an actual aeronautics engineer rather than make baseless accusations.

Chine developed their own drones using the shapes designed by US and their own. Then you run them through aerodynamics simulations. Whatever has the best shape you go with regardless of who came up with them first.

Form follows function. It’s strange that all missiles are long with fins. OMG, China copied US missiles.

In any case, that’s military tech. Even the US is spying on China. Did you bother to read the Snowden documents?

Not only is the CIA spying on China’s military tech. The CIA is also doing industrial espionage on Chinese companies. While saying that they do NOT steal civilian tech.

And what American mistakes are you talking about? Cite your sources. I want to see the technical specs.

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Donald McLellan
· November 10
Who TF would want to copy the F-35. It still has 871 problems that need fixing as 13th Jan 2021 a cording to Bloomberg. As I recall, among them cant shoot straight and if you use the main gun flat out it'll probably crack the fuselage.

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Marlin Claxton
· December 3
For a fighter with so “many” problems and so expensive the F-35 sure is popular on the international market. I’ll bet all those purchasing countries just love to buy problems and give away money. Think before you write.

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Donald McLellan
· December 4
One of the reason it is ‘popular' is due to financial contracts that many countries entered into to support the development of this plant. If you have already poured millions and millions into its development, then there are pressures to buy the end
product. Very clever marketing from Lockhead backed by US government arm twisting. One of the RAFnew super fighter f35 has just had to be ditched after take off. Some teething trouble, eh!

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Marlin Claxton
· December 4
You mean “contributors” such as Israel or Switzerland, countries which can afford ANY plane. F-35 is the most sought after fighter plane in the world for a reason.

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Marlin Claxton
· October 7, 2020
The US has sufficient chopsticks technology; none is needed from China.. We also don’t add that ”wonderful” food additive melamine to our baby formula or even pet food. And the plastic nodules in Chinese rice are an added bonus.

The international consensus is that China will steal anything that is not nailed down.

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Ting Ho
· April 10, 2021
Whatever the Chinese development to you seems to be stealing, right? Don't you understand that there is something called “learned and advanced?” Perhaps, you have seen that automobile was the great industry in US's history, then came Toyota, which
advanced. However, once Toyota has done a pretty job, which became the first in industry, sanction eas played be US over this company. So did Alstom, SA of France, which had the advanced technology, US didn't like it, jailed its then CEO, and finally
acquired the company be GE. Today's world, we need to be forbearance and accept someone's improvement. We need a harmonious world, not picking on others, or suppressing other's improvements.

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Donald McLellan
· November 10
If you have a fairly precise set of design parameters, then the most efficient independant designs will look similar. If they are significantly different then probably one of the design parameters will have changed.

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Siau Liu
· December 22, 2019
The writer is totally correct in what China does in the pradtice of transfer of technology from other advanced countries. Having said all, that, judging from history, all nations copied and even taken without permisssion from other nations in technology
to benefit and advance themselves from a inferior positon including all the current advanced technologically accomplished nations. The whole heat is based on geo political and power competion between US and China. A rising power is being attacked and
blocked in all possible ways feasible to delay, derail and slow down the rate of rise of China. By reading history, it is a natural process practiced by established powers against rising powers.

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Graham Stephens
· March 28, 2020
This is not an example of an efficient technology transfer agreement as it only benefits China. I hope Canada was paid handsomely for agreeing to it.

Technology transfer is designed to benefit the world as it stimulates competition. China can often use the transferred technology to improve on it, make it easier to produce and thus drive down the market price for everyones benefit.

China should then expect that other countries will request technology transfer arrangements for the Chinese derivative product. Technology transfer is not a one way street.

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Ian Clements
· July 20, 2020
Good luck on getting China to do that, of allowing a Western country to have access to their Internet provision, etc.

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Shaniqqua Asomugha
· August 16, 2020
Huawei has offered to license their 5G technology to US & European countries. China has been offering their high speed rail technology to anyone who wants to buy.

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