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Comment by ttran4 | Hacker News Reader

This may be the first company in China to be innovating instead of working on the Hiphone 6. Regardless, they will never be taken seriously because Chinese companies reputations are already destroyed.

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Never? Japan and Korea have recovered from very similar reputations very nicely indeed.

Sure but Japan and Korea and completely different from China (ok, who knows, maybe there won't be ditch executions in China in 200 years).

I don't know as much about Korea, but Japan had plenty of pretty atrocious human rights violations of its own which it also recovered from.

Yes, China is different. I'm just saying, "never say never".

Last time the Japanese systematically vivisected women and children without anaesthesia, including live amputation of limbs and injection of bacteria was between 1935 and 1945. That is about 70 years ago, not 200.

Absolutely, the Japanese did some pretty heinous things. But Japan and South Korea are different in a way none of the responses have dealt with.

China is still behaving badly and a fundamental change in their government looks generations and generations away, if it is even on the horizon.

This is essential watching to understand China better. IMHO. YMMV. I changed a lot of my opinions after watching this talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/martin_jacques_understandin...

You've had too much TV propaganda IMHO. China's bureaucrats nowadays have way more respect for their people than South Korea's elite. No idea about Japan.

I haven't had too much "TV propaganda." Maybe you haven't spent enough time with actual Chinese people. This is just jibber jabber. I'm sure some are in the audience, do you feel respected by Chinese bureaucrats? Come on. That's not even a serious response; it's like one of those "I'm going to make a provocative point that is counter the mainstream. DOWN WITH TV NOW -- NO BIG BOX RETAIL FOREVER!!" bogus statements.

Well .. yeap, TV in 21 century is for the most stupid part of population - those incapable of any independent thinking and research. Japan and SK being close allies to NATO and China enemy number one or two makes for a natural bias in Western TV coverage. I've spend most of the last 14 years doing business in SK and China, which gives me some confidence to confront the "mainstream" TV propaganda.

Edit: just had this open in the next tab: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholiday/2012/07/16/what-is-m...

Suggested followup: Taiwan also very different culturally from China.

I can't remember the time when Japan and Korea was like China today but you're right, there's no such thing as never. It will just be a lot more difficult for them because they have a history of building crappy products and counterfeit goods. To us they are like a felon trying to find a job. We make judgements based on their history and it will take a lot of convincing to prove themselves.

Classic mental mistake of the disrupted.

China have come from making pathetic, health-hazard goods, to now making 'good enough' products, and it won't be long before they are making Apple-quality stuff.

Also, as seen with Microsoft and Google, you don't have to make Apple-level stuff to pose competition.

They already make these products. They only don't design them. ;)

Anyway, on a sidenote... The Apple of yesterday had to prove itself everyday in order not to get killed by bigger players; today Apple has to prove itself every single day in order not to be overtaken by any player. How crazy is that?

"it won't be long before they are making Apple-quality stuff."

Wait, they actually make actual Apple stuff today. I realize these aren't China designs but when we're talking about build quality, the know how is already there although in most cases spoken for by foreign capital.

"destroyed"? My experience is the opposite. In the last decade, I've continuously had to increase my respect for China-made goods every year.

>> Chinese companies reputations are already destroyed.

How so? You have to be known to have a reputation that can be destroyed.

There aren't many Chinese (not to be confused with Taiwanese) brand names in the mainstream in North America. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Haier, and calling them mainstream is stretching it.

I'm sure as Chinese brands expand into the west, their reputations will be cemented more by the quality of their products than the fact they're Chinese. And given that China's already producing some pretty high quality stuff for everyone else, they don't have the same mountains to climb as the Japanese and the Koreans did.

Where do you think your iPhone is made?

China has been at the forefront of quality manufacturing for quite some time now. It was only a matter of time before some of their design companies started to make proper use of them.

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