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Comment by olliej | Hacker News Reader

As opposed to the usual one where China's government routinely demands all foreign companies transfer ownership, IP, and technology to China, then once the Chinese companies have all of that decide that the foreign company is "breaking the law" and evicts them from the country.

Because only china is allowed to block foreign companies, if other countries do it then it's unfair.

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First and foremost, every country looks out for themselves, and who can fault one for doing that? All this shows is that the US isn't the only country that has asymmetric foreign policies and treaties. The "me no like China" chest-thumping is purely based on emotions, unless someone has actually found an actual backdoor in the 5g chips that are being considered for purchase here.

Actually no country does that. From Africian to American to Antarctican to Asian.. no one demands ip, shuts out all foreign companies, demands to be partners and than kicks you using some version of a legal system.

That is just a simplistic caricature of what actually happens. Any company has to first accept the tax breaks and business incentives (land resources, loans, no red-tape, easier access to market etc) that the Chinese government employs to attract foreign businesses in specific markets. China has structured those incentives to benefit them - which include setting up a joint venture with a Chinese company. If the company is a state owned enterprise, your benefits might increase even further. You have to obviously transfer the IP for the factory to actually make the thing you want. China, with its communist past has their own understanding of property rights. I believe even its citizens cannot own land - everything belongs to the government. I'm not an IP law expert, so I don't know what international laws China is or isn't violating, but I don't expect China to respect US laws, without a treaty.

Like that shiny new battery factory Tesla is building in Shanghai that will produce the number one US market advantage in EV cars?

Then China will steal their IP from the factory in China and kick Tesla out of China so China's own EV Battery facilities can reap what Tesla sowed.

Would the factory be in Shanghai if it wasn't for Chinese protectionism? Or is that why they built it there?

The factory is in China because that's where the demand is and it's far more cost effective than exporting it from somewhere else.

I think China makes enough batteries already that there isn't a big worry about them stealing any IP.

Not sure why Telsa would want the battery design copied. Has anyone ever gotten to the bottom of this crazy outsourcing of ip. Is it strictly money related?

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