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Comment by rongenre | Hacker News Reader

They stole the idea from the US: https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/12/06/we-were-pirates-too/

In the 18th and 19th centuries, infringement of British patents was stated U.S. policy. In contrast, China keeps saying one thing and doing another. For example: they deny any involvement in industrial espionage, yet keep doing it. They are a member of the WTO, yet they consistently flout its rules. Then they have the chutzpah to complain about U.S. tariffs. If you ask me, it's the malicious and persistent dishonesty that irks other countries almost more than economic competition.

https://www.itif.org/publications/2015/09/17/false-promises-...

Do not do business with them, it is not like other countries politicians and politics are good examples to follow.

>Do not do business with them

This tactic works when it comes to mercantilist trade policy (see also: new U.S. tariffs, and recent EU complaint against China in the WTO). Less effective when it comes to stemming IP theft.

Which country are you from, that is such a beacon of moral righteousness on the global stage?

Wow.

So they steal bullet trains etc and we stole steam tech etc. I guess it just indicates that it's foolish for a nation to pay for technology if it's poor.

I wonder are there any examples of poor nations in history that actually paid market prices for technology, and became super powers? (Or at least maybe regional powers?)

Would Germany count? Obviously Post WWII without any of their acquisitions, debilitated infrastructure, and debt

Yet third time's a charm!

They didn't pay market prices. We gave them most of the stuff via the Marshall Plan. (You could say the same thing about Japan. We gave them all the stuff they needed to rebuild.)

I'm wondering if anyone has ever actually paid for the stuff they need?

Perhaps not!

Also when it comes to private persons, I find many examples of the currently wealthy 1% having done things that elevated and cemented their status that are no longer legal today. I dare say most.

Its not just that the laws changed and they coincidentally were a common practice at the time, its that those were the particular nuanced laws they were using.

Everything from selling securities door to door 100 years ago, to self-benefitting charities using overlooked and accidental combinations of tax code.

Germany didn’t pay market prices, thanks to US subsidies, and even defaulted on their debt.

And the British

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/arti...

The UK also did something similar with rubber - originally it was a product closely guarded by Brazil but a "bio-pirate" stole samples and they were then planted widely within the Empire - with Malaya going on to become the top producer:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wickham_(explorer)

The history of silk production is similarly full of continuous theft between cities and countries, from China to Turkey to Italy and beyond. Some cities tried harder than others to keep their secrets, but “theft” eventually happened anyway.

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