Comments on: Chinese Court Rubber Stamps Fiat Panda Clone

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:15:53 +0000

psar,

I understand your pet peeve, but it makes me wonder. Has there ever been a an actually communist country that did not flip into autocracy? I can’t think of one.

How about a libertarian country?

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:03:16 +0000

…philosophically a communist country…

No, China is a philosophically autocratic country that uses communism as an (weak) excuse to oppress people.

Pet peeve of mine, sorry. Communism isn’t China’s problem; an oligarchy of businessmen and government officials that act exactly like the old Imperial court are. Communism is just a label to make working classes feel better, but it’s not the reason China works the way it does.

Chinese rulers (and we’re talking the whole oligopoly here, not just government) do what they do because they have no accountability. None. They’re not accountable to their people, their business partners or to other countries. That’s a very bad situation to be in, because it means that they aren’t, collectively, going to be at all responsible global citizens.

If you thought Americans were bad…

By: John Horner

John Horner — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:48:48 +0000

I don’t think Chinese courts have ever ruled in favor of a foreign company over a domestic company in any such disputes. Also, remember that China is still philosophically a communist country which has only a very restricted view of personal (or corporate) ownership of physical assets … let alone “intellectual property”.

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:08:43 +0000

pwned=owned, Same thing

What I can’t figure out is how so many companies keep going back for the abuse? Is it some sort of thing like people not leaving abusive spouses or something? I think it’s even worse. It’s one thing when you love someone, and then they turn out to be abusive. But how do you marry someone that everyone KNOWS is going to beat you?

I runaway from stocks when they announce big initiatives that involve investments in these countries. Just sell your stuff to a distributor for cash, and let THEM deal with the issues.

And while you are at it, make them buy a bond against their country letting someone rip off your intellectual property.

By: Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:07:32 +0000

Okay, I’ll bite. What does “pwned” mean? I see it everywhere, and I do know what “owned” means.

By: Rix

Rix — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:44:52 +0000

Fiat will probably end up licensing and importing from Great Wall. Since they can’t shut down the copycats, they probably will take advantage of the cheap labor. Still, hard to know where the corners were cut. Probably in the quality of the steel in the safety cage…

By: Cicero

Cicero — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:21:09 +0000

In honor of the Chinese court decision, Great Wall will be releasing a commemorative edition of the Panda. It’ll be called the Kangaroo.

By: Stingray

Stingray — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:01:53 +0000

It applies to this situation…

Fiat got pwned by that court…

And they thought they got the chinese pwned with the european court LOL

By: mel23

mel23 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:45:42 +0000

And look at the grief BP is getting now in Russia. No reason the car Western car companies cranking up there will see much difference. Crooks will be crooks.

By: cjdumm

cjdumm — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:13:40 +0000

China has a long history of absorbing and Sinicizing those who invade it. Now Fiat (and GM, and Microsoft) are joining the Mongols in the ‘But We Thought We’d CONQUERED China’ hall of fame.

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:51:10 +0000

Duh.

No, really. If you thought Japanese trade practices were problematic, they pale in comparison to the kind of shin-kicking any company that gets involved with China is going to take. Forced partnerships, voided rights to intellectual property. Awful.

The worst part about all of this is the craven “you say jump and I say how high?” attitude assumed by governments and corporations when it comes to China. It’s horrible–like watching lemmings run off a cliff.

I have this hope that India shows us what a free(ish) market with some self-respect looks like.