2017-10-16

China plays unfair in three dimensions

1illegal

The best example is the blatant theft of intellectual property that makes for the most  sensational headlines, such as the charges laid in 2014 against five Chinese military officers for hacking into Аmerican nuclear , solar and metals firms.

2 intense

intense but legal competition—is far more important. Chinese firms have proven that they  can make  good  products for less. Consumer prices for televisions, adjusted for quality, fell by more than90% in the 15 years after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). China’s share of global exports has  risen to 14% ,  the highest  any country has reached since America in 1968. That may fall as China loses its grip on low-value industries such as textiles. But it is gaining a new reputation in high tech. If data are the new  oil, China’s tech industry has vast reserves in the information generated by the hundreds of millions of its people online—unprotected by privacy rules. Whether you make cars in Germany, semiconductors in America or robots in  Japan ,  the chances  are that in future some of your fiercest rivals will be Chinese. 

3 unfair

sharp practice that breaks no global rules. The government  demands  that  firms give  away technology as the cost of admission to China’s vast market. Foreign firms have been targeted in the biggest of China’s anti-monopoly cases. The government restricts access to lucrative sectors,while financing assaults on those same industries abroad. Such behaviour is dangerous precisely because today’s rules offer no redress.