Because they can? So many foreign companies “have” to be in China. Therefore, these foreign companies do not make rationale business decisions or else they lower the criteria. China will make demands until the demands are not met. It’s not bullying, it’s capitalism at it’s finest. 
How does trade by extortion become free trade? They have already demonstrated they will protect their jobs from us. They tariff our autos out of being competitive. They don’t believe in free trade when it harms them. They have no intention of opening China up to American electric cars. They want to produce them there, sell them to their own people and give us a stiff arm. We of course will let them sell them in America. That is what we do.
We don’t need industry. We have banking. See, the Repubs were right.
Not long ago it was in the news how China had cornered the rare earth metal market and were planning on doing a few things with it that would give them a monopoly.
They wanted to .imit exports of rare earth metals so that foreign countries couldn’t obtain enough to do large scale manufacturing of new products. The thinking was this would give China a head start in R&D to advance beyond the rest of the world, and it would incentivize foreign companies to set up shop in China, where rare earth metals would be abundant. So win/win for China. Foreign nations don’t have the raw materials to do manufacturing or R&D, so companies are forced to set up in China and play by China’s rules which probably include things like giving industrial secrets to the gov and not letting capital leave the nation.
I bring that up because it seems like China may be setting itself up to really economically alienate the rest of the world. Esp developed nations in the west who rely on being at the forefront of scientific & tech advances to keep our economies going. I wonder how this will pan out.
If they want to be a leader in new technology that doesn’t involve new and better ways to kill people, I say let them. We certainly don’t, so someone should. I hope they are first to build a base on the Moon and the first to put men on Mars as well. It would serve us right.
The problem with being a totalitarian state, capitalist or not, is that those in charge are used to dictating how things will happen. And they are trying to engage internationally in the same manner.
Seems like they are America’s best friend as they make American arrognce look not so bad in comparison, eh?
Getting their idiot fisherman back wasn’t enough, now they are demanding Japan prostrate itself in apology. Wesley has a point - they are arrogantly alienating many potential trading partners, both international industrial and nation states, by making it clear that dealing with China comes at a very dear price. At this rate they better keep supporting North Korea as they may soon have no other friends left.
I still think that they are smart enough to learn how to bend some, but if they do not learn how to do so then much of the America hating world will be burning Chinese flags instead before long I think.
I only wish that people would start burning Chinese flags.
I had to get a contract legalised at the Chinese embassy a few days ago (in China, if you want to use a document in a Chinese Court, you need to get all your documents notarised and legalised). The Chinese embassy refused.
Why?
Because the contract (a licencing agreement dated 1994) referred to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and not Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region) and Taiwan (Province of China).
This is evidence, to be used in a Court of law, and we are prevented from using it, simply because China has a problem with the countries mentioned (in 1994, Hong Kong still belonged to the British!).
Utterly repugnant. I shudder to think what would happen if China ever gained sufficient power to be a world power - I think they would make the British colonials look like pikers in comparison.
So what if they alienate the rest of the world?
They’ll buy up media companies like the Saudis did Fox News and shoot down China-unfriendly stories. They’ll keep playing the free trade card whenever we want to retaliate to their nonsense and keep the West hypnotized by their phony allusions to “free enterprise” even as they totally flout the concepts of free trade. And if all that fails they’ll put pressure on foreign currencies, and threaten to call in debts.
They may even get something going with the Middle East to start another oil embargo. They’re already making deals around the world for oil.
The world lacks any balls to deal with China.
Exactly. What am I missing here, it’s just business. US companies will have to make a decision to either play along or not, based on what they think will be more profitable for them.
I think I kind of get where some of you are coming from - like China is asking the US to hand over some some kind of advanced secret technology to them? I don’t think that’s the case. China is just asking for non-royalty rights to work patented inventions. The technology is already known by everyone, by virtue of its being patented. US manufacturers can still keep doing research and development in private back home.
And seriously, it’s not as though the US is the world leader for electric car technology. They’re just not.
The United States doesn’t have a free trade agreement with China, so I guess the answer is, you can’t.
For all the fuss about “most favoured nation” status blah blah blah the US doesn’t have any trade partnerships with any other country that’s totally free, and the one ones that are even close to free are with Canada and Mexico, in accordance with NAFTA.
[QUOTE=Isamu]
And seriously, it’s not as though the US is the world leader for electric car technology. They’re just not.
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No? Who is then?
-XT
I say give it to them so long as they give us open borders and aluminium for 10 turns.
No? Who is then?
-XT
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In terms of countries? Japan.
Graph:
http://i.bnet.com/blogs/patent_race_hybrid_car_tech_griffith_hack.jpg?tag=content;col1
Article:
I thought China was looking for electric car technology, presumably battery technology. While those are important in hybrids as well, your cite doesn’t demonstrate that Japan is a leader in those fields…merely that they lead in hybrid development and products. Those aren’t the same thing.
(Besides, China and Japan don’t exactly have good, um, historical relations, so I doubt the Chinese would get much traction with Japanese corporations on this)
-XT
That statement is equivalent to saying "a democratic state, capitalist or not, will engage internationally in a democratic, consensus-driven manner. And I don’t see anyone, left or right, who thinks that that accurately describes America’s foreign policy. That claim is bunk.
China is already starting to limit the export of rare earths metals used in magnets that will impact battery operated machine technology throughout the world.
Our leaders may sometimes try to dictate, but they know how to build consensus as well. The skill set is there, even if it is not always used. I don’t think that Chinese leaders have the skill set as much. I think they can learn though.
Is that understandable to you?
Seriously. If the Chinese want American car technology, we should be more than happy to give it to them. I’m sure they’ll think twice about these demands when they’ve all experienced the “joy” of American motoring.
On a more serious note, it should now be clear that the short-term benefit of doing business in China comes at the long-term expense of doing business anywhere. The Chinese won’t protect anyone else’s intellectual property but their own.
If Western industry can’t learn that lesson, it deserves to die.
Yeah, they’re limiting the supply of raw materials, but not finished goods. So you either buy Chinese made products, or have to set up shop in China to purchase the rare earths. Pretty clever strategy from their viewpoint, as apparently they have a complete lock on some very rare materials (even when the mothballed mines in the US are taken into account).
In other news, China’s just slapped a 105.4% levy on American chicken exports to China.
General Tso wept.
All politics, whatever its apparent form, is about balancing the competing claims of different coalitions. Foreign policy is the same skillset. Whatever the benefits of democracy are, “suddenly learning consensus building” is not one of them.
Viewing the Chinese leadership as some sort of monolithic entity that can decree whatever it wants is the product of insufficient knowledge, just like a kid who sees the principal of the school as a tyrant with no restraints.