Thank you, and please continue
15 January 2010I want to thank all of our posters on “What is China?” for their postings. I will note that our servers were attacked and brought down for a few minutes today, Friday, and that our tech team had the servers back up and running within minutes. Why do I mention this? Yesterday, an LA law firm which had filed a $2.2B suit against China for stealing the IP of a California company also found their servers attacked, just a day or so after the suit was filed.
Is this how we do business now?
I think it is very important, and enlightening for the rest of the world, that those who suffer cyber attacks after crticizing China, should go public IMMEDIATELY.
Like Google, and like SNS, the effect of this should be obvious: depriving China of the cyberattack tool it has recently deployed. Google claims that 34 other corporations were also hacked.
OK, CEOs of these corporations, it is time for you to step forward. We already have a human rights student from Stanford willing to stand up and say NO. Are you CEOs more afraid than she is?
I now want to point out something obvious in our conversation on China: the angry, obvious Communist Chinese writers are: angry and the most aggressive. We in the non-Chinese world are feeling our way here, brothers, so give us a little breathing space. We began by giving your country the benefit of the doubt; so far, it has not worked out properly.
We really do want to have China join the world trading group as a “normal” member, which means, China really does have to become “normal.”
This would mean that China would have to protect Intellectual Property, from all countries. This would mean that China would prosecute and disavow IP theft.
This would mean that China would have to allow imports, as well as exports, without structural barriers, as in wind farm equipment.
This would mean that China would allow its currency, like almost all other currencies in the world, to be fair priced.
We look forward to having China as a real partner in the world, not on its own private terms, but on terms well understood by global trading partners. All of us look forward to this, but our optimism in having China joining world commerce should never be confused with bad acting, illegal behavior, IP theft, structural barriers, or other current practices which need to be dissolved before China is a trusted member of the trading community.
In short: All of us want to trade with China. But China seems to have a model which harms its partners. Fix the model, and join us. Right now, through the WTO, the EU, the US, and other organizations, you hear us asking: Please fix your model.
We welcome you, but we do not welcome your model.
5 Responses to “Thank you, and please continue”
January 19th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
China doesn’t mind about joining our side… If anything, from their perspective it’s more like we should abide by their rules and join them. They have the power and influence on the global economic platform to run with this… And until only last week this was working fine by them. Despite googles effort, there is no doubt that in the future it will continue to be their way and no other way.
January 19th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
The whole cyber espionage thing that has been going around is a lot like a 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum so I’m not condoning that in any way. Also, I’m not trying to be cynical but “your” way seems no different from “their” way. Either “this” side sets the rules or “that” side sets the rules. Explain to me how what you’re proposing is better. In both instances a dominant party dictates the rules of the game because it’s not like history is full of examples of benevolent dominant parties.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
As a foreigner living in Chinese university apartments for many years, I just assume my PC is being accessed electronically. I certainly know while at different universities, my residence has been walked through while I’m at class, including my computer turned on, the guards and others around the campus have phoned in whenever they see me, and students have followed me around outside the campus. It was particularly bad in the months just before the Olympics. It’s just part of the culture here. The locals just seem to know which laws are made for them to obey, and which laws are made for the foreigners to be impressed by. They just know they’re being watched and listened to. After a while living here, we get used to it too. Most matters are based on relationships with elders, administrators, and emperors, of which China still has many, not based on laws. That’s the way it’s been here for 5000 years. That’s the country’s culture, and it won’t change too quickly.
January 20th, 2010 at 7:08 am
[...] Shared "What Is the Chinese Economic Model?" author reports server attacked. [...]
January 24th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Regarding David’s comment on “your” vs. “our” way: all nations do and have used tariffs, so this is not a radical proposal by me. Rather, it is the ONLY proposal I can think of, which brings the old (and perhaps the new) mercantilist models to a complete stop.
If you want the attention of a mercantilist who is milking your country of jobs and IP, just use the word “tariffs,” and they will go aggressively berserk – MUCH more so than “normal” trading partners. You could call it vampire garlic for mercantilists.