Just for your info: Quanta, Compal and Acer are not Chinese companies, they’re Taiwanese. Only Lenovo is Chinese, and their most highly regarded products are holdovers from IBM.

Taiwan is known for high quality products and respect for intellectual property. China is not.

I don’t know if you have traveled to a Western country or not (but I suspect that you have, because your English is excellent), but there is a clear distinction in Western countries between Taiwan and China, due to the vastly different political systems and history.

By the way, it’s good to have someone from China to give us some perspective from the other side.

The Maher Arar story has received a fair amount of coverage here in the US. I have seen at least two major reports in the US, one on CNN and another one on PBS.

Unlike in China, we in the US actually have available domestically many news accounts of the unpopular, immoral, illegal and unwise actions of our government.

I’m certainly not defending the actions of the US Gov’t in this case, but how is that comparable to China, where coverage of an event like this would be strictly forbidden by government censors?

The point that I was aiming at was that the current Chinese government and past governments do not share a common view of right and wrong with western nations, and yet we seem to expect them to play “fair”. Those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. I did not mean to imply that there was some genetic flaw or predisposition in Eastern peoples that made them destined to subjugation or dishonesty.

The Arar case is a thing of the past, and maybe we should “move on” as you have suggested. But let’s get back to the original topic here.

Shouldn’t we just “move on” with the Chinese politics? I mean, it’s been 30 years since they started the reform and adopted market economy (to a certain extend). Chinese leaders are as faithful to Communism as Bill Clinton is to Christianity.

Exactly when and how should we “move on” is a tough question. But let’s not use double standards.

The Chinese people have lived in subjugation for as long as there has been a China from fuedal lords to emperors to the current crop of “free market?” communists. They lie, cheat, and steal with no apparent concept of right and wrong.

The Taiwanese are genetically the same people as the Chinese, and they have no problems living as a free, democratic society. In fact, they’re prospering and have become the leading manufacturer of computer chips. Your computer probably has motherboards and LCD screens made on that tiny island nation.

Also, it’s not just China that has flimsy copyright laws. If you walk into a random video store in South America, Africa, Asia, or Eastern Europe, you’ll probably find nothing but bootlegged goods. Most countries in the world ignore international copyright laws.

Americans only make a big deal out of China because it has a large population that they want to sell to. If China had the population number of Turkey or Ecuador, you probably won’t see American companies complaining about them.

Just for the record, I come here for automotive news, reviews and opinions on such concerning the automotive industry, not scandalous propaganda against the United States. This isn’t intended to take anything away from the larger discussion, of course.

I am not trying to defend the terrorists. But sometimes you need know why people got mad.

On the record:

The US is the only nation that used WMD (atomic bombs) on civilians.

The US is the country that invaded another country for suspected WMD activity.

The US supports ruthless military dictators in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, since the dictators obey their American master.

The US opposes a military democracy(Hamas) in Palestine, since that particular democracy is hostile against American rule. Hamas is not good by any chance. But it’s a democracy nonetheless. And there are reasons why people would blow themselves up. I wouldn’t, because I have a life.

Also, I meant Chinese was a b*tch to learn only in the context of original English speakers who are unfamiliar to a language that is not primarily alphabetized.

And yeah, Arabic is even harder than Chinese. (That seems to be the consensus anyways.)

After WWII, in order to support the economy of an eventual strong ally, the U.S. gave the Japanese cheap licenses to produce Western technology. The U.S. also made Japan promise not to build an offensive military. Within ten years of the war’s end, Japan was producing arguably better cameras than the Germans, and by the 1960s were producing excellent automobiles and consumer electronics. However, Japan was, and is, a close friend of the U.S. — but never had any real economic or military leverage over us. Even in the 1980s and the early 1990s (the “Gung Ho” period), there was no real threat, in retrospect, that the Japanese were going to take us over in any regard.

On the other hand, China fought us directly in Korea, with devastating effect, and supplied North Vietnam until their relationship soured in the mid-1970s. Since then, China is not an ally of any sort of the U.S. (e.g., Taiwan plus remember the whole spy plane incident?), owns a considerable reserve of our currency (i.e. leverage), is sending people into space, building up a modern military, and stealing Western intellectual property — all with our complete consent (i.e. corporate greed).

We can only hope that the 2008 presidential candidates have the gumption to speak to the China issue. The Western world, at the very least, needs to agree not to transfer technology to China — Japan understands this, and only farms out cheap assembly jobs to the Chinese.

Don’t think so. Chinese is as easy, and as hard, to learn as any other language.

Tell me honestly, is Chinese any harder than Arabic?

No, don’t compare to French. I mean, English and French and German, etc, they are all part of the Latin family and should not be considered as completely different languages. It’s like, a Chinese may regard English as being harder than Japanese. But those two languages share a lot in common.

Those toys are North American branded and the company (Mattel) admitted there are “design flaws.”

After all, they are not really dangerous Chinese toys. They are American. More like the Ford Exploders.

I mean, how many Chinese branded toys have you seen here? Almost none. They are all American companies employing Chinese workers. Supposedly these companies should do some QA, right?

Here is a strong case for the power of a cartel. Western firms, with support from their governments, might have stood together to restrict their technologies until China gave (and held firm to) assurances of return on investment. Instead, each company is willing to shred another piece of its own flesh until it reaches bone in an attempt to get China to allow them to conduct business there. Both sides have something to offer, but only one side has a unified front to stand strong in the face of negotiation.

I won’t address whether or not cartels are ultimately beneficial, but I see here how one could have worked to keep things a bit more equal on both sides of the table.

Great editorial.

I guess we Americans just have to learn to the cope with the idea that there’s only so much wealth in this world to go around, and eventually, that wealth and consumption is gonna have to be spread out a lot more evenly that it has been. That’s really the fundamental principle at play here… and not just with automobiles.

We have all heard the uproar over lead paint on Chinese toys, but Wal-mart, which is a major distributor of Chinese goods, is still in business. Why? because Chinese products are cheap.North Americans will but what is cheap. They will not care how many human beings die making the products or how much pollution is poured into the environment or homw many american workers are out of work, as long as the car/shoe/toy is cheap. And as the high paying jobs in this country diappear, the cheaper the better.

The economic power will be China within 25 years. Better start learing the language now. I understand it is not the easiest to learn.

Given the level of inefficency and bloat in the car industry, they have good reason to be petrified.

The chinese will figure out how to pass a crash test. They will figure out how to tune suspension.

Just like the $40 DVD player works well enough for 95% of the market, the chinese car will too. The few who care about the other 5% don’t really matter.

To quote Bart Simpson: You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

That expression has been around a lot longer than Bart Simpson. I can still hear my Dad saying it as far back as the 50’s. Probably been around (like a lot of his sayings) since a least WWII.

To quote Bart Simpson: You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

Right now, all those companies have is the hope that the growing economy in China will lead to a better protection of intellectual property. A slim hope…

Go ahead, get your jabs in. But comparing the misdeeds of our current crop of leaders (whose approval ratings are, incidentally, in the toilet) to the Chinese dictatorship is just a wee bit of a stretch.

That said, your first point is a good one: they need us as much as we need them. At least for now.

See, people are complaining about copyright and a lack of fair play. But when Chinese car makers are doing business in the US, they are under American rules. Then, Americans can use the leverage and demand/enforce equal treatments.

Bring it on. Don’t just complain about doing business in China and still be a chicken when the Chinese want to do business in the US.

BTW, as for the “military dictatorship”, how many of you Americans have ever heard about Maher Arar?

He is a Canadian citizen. He was held by American authorities without a charge. He then was torture by a joint force of Americans and Syrians, for two years.

Eventually, the government of Canada stepped in and got him home. He was never convicted or charged; there was zero evidence of wrong doing. Having an Arabic name was his only fault. The US government never apologized.

There wasn’t a single Canadian citizen held by the Chinese government without a charge or a trial. There was no report of torture on a Canadian citizen.

I guess Canadians should stop buying American cars?

A link of background and many more links. Read for yourselves, if you are interested.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/

But this would also adversely affect the value of their holdings. Seems like a game of chicken to me, but of course they’d think it through beforehand, figure out whom to bribe/intimidate while our political and business leaders would be just as stunned at such a development as they are surpised at the bursting of the real estate bubble.