Intellectual Property | Wandering China

November 24, 2012 • 1:58 pm 0

#China Bashing Bears Fruit: Apple Moves Bring Manufacturing Home [Huffington Post]

Navarro and Autry: ‘You just can’t stay in a deal where only one side is required to follow rules or behave in a civilized manner. It is time for Washington to take off the gloves and fight for American jobs like the 700,000 other ones Apple has left in China.’

In open support of the encirclement and containment of China, alluded when Syria, Iran, and North Korea are propped up in the conversation. This to me, interestingly suggests that the logic of domestic protectionism over global production networks is good business for a global marketplace of cyclical consumption and planned obsolescence.

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China Bashing Bears Fruit: Apple Moves Bring Manufacturing Home
by Greg Autry
Source – Huffington Post, published July 7, 2012

Navarro and Autry in a global call to action against China: looking back when Apple was made in the US.

I’m going to take a little (very little) victory lap here. Several times in this space, I’ve suggested that Apple needs to move manufacturing back home. Each time I’ve gotten comments like “that’s not going to happen” or “they will just move to Vietnam or the next cheapest labor market.” However, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on Thursday that he is going to manufacture a line of Macintosh computers in the U.S. Firstly, good work Tim, and thanks for finally listening to the vocal minority of us who have been complaining about this situation for years.

I still have my first Macintosh, with its anemic 128k of RAM. When that plucky little beige beastie greeted the public it was assembled at a state-of-the-art plant in Fremont, Calif. Yes, that California, the one with the high taxes, tough labor laws and the environmental crazies. To be fair, Apple moved Mac production out of the state within a couple of years and out of the country not long after. Apple production was done in various places including Cork, Ireland, before finally settling in China about a decade ago.

Now, the specifics of the Apple plan were light and the statement that the capital investment will be a mere $100 million suggests this first foray back into American manufacturing won’t be a big deal for a firm that keeps about 1,000 times that in the bank. However, that is a fine start. Frankly, re-shoring can’t happen over night, because America’s manufacturing infrastructure and workforce will need years to recover. When I interviewed executives at Foxconn City a couple years ago, they told me they didn’t think most of what they built in Shenzhen could be built in the U.S. at all. The fact is, that many segments of the electronic product assembly supply chain and production engineers experienced with the latest hardware are hard to find in the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Finance, Foxconn Suicides 2010, Government & Policy, Human Rights, Influence, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Media, Migrant Workers, Politics, Population, Soft Power, Strategy, Technology, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S., China's Rise, culture, Human rights, International Relations, Politics, Propaganda, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, Trade, Transportation, U.S.

November 18, 2012 • 9:35 pm 0

Jaguar Land Rover building factory in China [Guardian]

Guardian: JLR and Chery ramping up for China’s middle class boom? The Guardian’s industrial editor provides details as the famed UK off-road powerhouse now join European counterparts Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz with full-blown local production capability direct in the world’s biggest auto market.

Quite a few of my mainland Chinese peers who now live in Australia love the Land Rover aesthetic. Most do not push (yet) their stately steel horses to the brink, preferring to drive them inland and keeping them spotty clean but I digress.

“China is now our biggest market,” Ralf Speth, chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover at press briefing announcing their 10.9b yuan eastern China plant in their 65th year of operations. The plant will also see an R&D component.

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Jaguar Land Rover building factory in China
Car firm to start manufacturing vehicles in world’s largest automotive market from 2014 after agreeing £1.1bn-joint venture
by Dan Milmo, Guardian Industrial Editor
Source – Guardian, published November 18, 2012

Source – Guardian, 2012.
Jaguar Land Rover posted a 58% increase in Chinese sales in the second quarter, boosted by demand for the recently launched Range Rover Evoque, above. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Jaguar Land Rover has signalled the importance of China to its growth prospects by starting the construction of a factory outside Shanghai.

JLR and its Chinese partner, Chery, formally laid the foundation stone for a plant in Changshu, near Shanghai, as part of a 10.9bn yuan (£1.1bn) investment that will include a new research centre and an engine production facility. The firm’s owners, Tata, also own a JLR assembly plant in India but the Chinese venture is the company’s first full-blown sortie into overseas manufacturing, reflecting stellar growth in the car firm’s third largest market.

The business posted a 58% increase in Chinese sales in the second quarter, boosted by demand for the recently launched Range Rover Evoque model. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Automotive, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Environment, Finance, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Technology, The Guardian, Trade, Transport, U.K., China's Rise, Economics, Environment, Identity, International Relations, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, Transportation

October 26, 2012 • 9:04 am 0

Chinese automakers to tap Brazil through local production [Want China Times]

Brazil was the fifth largest auto market in the world in 2011. Sales topped 3.6 million cars then and Chinese cars accounted for a quarter of the market. Interdependent synergy where bridges can be found?

For more, see

Transnational media financial coverage: China’s Cars Grab Brazil Market Share (Bloomberg, September 21, 2011)

Chinese state media coverage: Feature: Chinese cars win hearts of Brazil’s new middle class (Xinhua, October 17, 2012):

“No one had anything good to say about the quality of Chinese products in the past… That was the Brazilian people’s first impression of China,” Fernando Morais, general manager of the Chinese state-owned JAC dealership at Botafogo. It made 494,800 vehicles in 2011. Exports began in 1990 after 26 years of being established. They started with Bolivia, today its products are claimed to be sold in over a hundred countries.

For a perspective from an internationalist automotive journalist who was recently in Brazil, check out Motor Mouth: I’m going back to Brazil! (National Post, October 25, 2012):

Auto sales are growing so rapidly that traditional automakers — such as Volkswagen and Renault — are expanding their manufacturing base here (the French company expanded its Ayrton Senna complex to build 100,000 more cars), while even the Chinese upstarts — JAC, for instance — are offshoring to Brazil to beat local tariffs. (The Chinese presence at the Sao Paulo auto show is huge, dwarfing its national presence at any mainstream exhibition I’ve attended. Great Wall, Chery and the aforementioned JAC all had huge booths as did Changan and Haima, along with smaller participation by Jonway and Landwind.). But despite their obvious ambitions, their displays are definitely second-rate compared with even the cheapest of the established marques. Indeed, if their products lag mainstream brands as much as their show displays, it may be some time before they are competitive.

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Chinese automakers to tap Brazil through local production
Staff Reporter
Source – Want China Times, published October 26, 2012

Chinese carmakers are setting up production bases in Brazil, which is currently the world’s fifth-largest auto market, to tap into the surging business opportunities offered by the South American country, Shanghai’s First Financial Daily reports.

On Oct. 23, Brazilian car distributor Districar announced that it will be adding Changan and Haima to the list of Chinese auto brands it distributes, including Chery and JAC, in Brazil from early next year.

The announcement preceded the Sao Paulo International Motor Show, which opened on the following day, where China’s Great Wall Motors unveiled its plan to enter the Brazilian market in the second half of 2013 and to set up factories in the country. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Automotive, Beijing Consensus, Brazil, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Economics, Environment, Finance, Influence, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, Technology, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, Brazil, China's Rise, Economics, International Relations, Public Diplomacy, Trade

October 14, 2012 • 10:32 pm 0

No joke, China job creator for US [China Daily]

In a time of economic interdependence and global production networks, perhaps this not a surprise? 20,000 jobs may not amount to much in terms of alleviating the 7.8% unemployment rate however (data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, correct as of September 2012).

China Daily: On the divisiveness of transient, cyclical, amnesiac political rhetoric amplifying the gap between true events and self-serving narrative, although this article does not point out that the special report was published in May 2011.

Commissioned by the Center on U.S.-China Relations of the Asia Society and the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States Woodrow Wilson international Center for scholars An American Open Door? Maximizing the Benefits of Chinese Direct Investments (click for full PDF) was published by Rosen and Hanemann.

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No joke, China job creator for US
By Tom McGregor
Source – China Daily, published October 10, 2012

During election season, US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have hit the campaign trail bashing China to win over American voters. Democrat and Republican Party politicians seem to be competing in the “who will be toughest on China if elected” contest.

In all likelihood these attacks may be nothing more than empty rhetoric, which would be forgotten shortly after Election Day. However, the American electorate should also take another factor into consideration. Chinese foreign direct investment in the US had been creating jobs, despite a gloomy domestic economy in the past few years.

According to a study conducted by the Kissinger Institute on China and Asia Society, Chinese-owned firms created nearly 20,000 American jobs in the past five years, when jobless figures remained at or above 8 percent. It’s possible China helped boost job growth in September as the unemployment rate dipped to 7.8 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Daily, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Economics, Environment, Influence, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Law, Mapping Feelings, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S., China's Rise, Economics, International Relations, Politics, Propaganda, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, U.S.

October 11, 2012 • 12:39 am 0

Chinese writer Mo Yan wins Nobel literature prize [Associated Press]

Guan Moye, better known as his pen name Mo Yan 莫言, the Chinese author behind Red Sorghum, The Garlic Ballads and Big Breasts & Wide Hips wins the Nobel Literature Prize to some Chinese fanfare, perhaps dyslexic over the suggested political posturing of Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

Once described by Donald Morrison as “one of the most famous, oft-banned and widely pirated of all Chinese writers” (see Holding up half the sky, Time 2005), this demonstrates in some part, a shift in how the Beijing consensus has broadened its stock to include homegrown literary talent that is respected overseas, widening the range of representations into its collective identity.

Poignant… that Hu Xijin 胡錫進, editor-in-chief of the Global Times is suggesting on his microblog (a search for 胡錫進 on Weibo revealed that ‘In accordance with the relevant laws, regulations and policies, “Mr Hu Xijin search results are not displayed.’ I digress. Reportedly he alludes to the fact that the Chinese mainstream cannot be kept out for long.

For a look at news coverage from China and the UK -

China Daily – Is Mo Yan man enough for the Nobel? (October 9, 2012)

Xinhua – News Analysis: How did Mo Yan win China’s first Nobel Prize in Literature? (October 12, 2012)

The Australian – China’s Mo Yan wins Nobel for literature (October 11, 2012)

Fox News got their report from the AP – Chinese writer Mo Yan wins Nobel literature prize; known for bawdy, sprawling tales (October 11, 2012)

The Guardian – Mo Yan’s Nobel prize for literature sparks celebration in China (October 11, 2012)

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Chinese writer Mo Yan wins Nobel literature prize
by Karl Ritter and Louise Nordstrom
Source – Agency – AP, published October 11, 2012

In this photo taken Monday, Oct 22, 2007, Chinese writer Mo Yan speaks during an interview at a teahouse in Beijing. Mo won the Nobel Prize for literature Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012. Source – AP Photo: Aritz Parra

STOCKHOLM (AP) – Chinese writer Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, a cause of pride for a government that had disowned the only previous Chinese winner of the award, an exiled critic.

National television broke into its newscast to announce the prize – exceptional for the tightly scripted broadcast that usually focuses on the doings of Chinese leaders.

The Swedish Academy, which selects the winners of the prestigious award, praised Mo’s “hallucinatory realism” saying it “merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.” Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: AP, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Democracy, Influence, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Nationalism, Nobel Prize, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, China's Rise, culture, Media, Nationalism, Politics, Public Diplomacy

September 20, 2012 • 12:22 am 3

The Ten Grave Problems Facing China [The China Story]

From the Australian Centre for China in the World.

Back in 1956, confronted with the task of making a new China, Mao in the speech ‘On the Ten Great Relationships’ 论十大关系 outlined the challenges that faced the CCP’s transformation of China.

Fast forward to 2012, the once-in-a-decade leadership transition sees Deng Yewen, senior editor of the Party mouthpiece Study Times frame a wide spanning ‘The Ten Grave Problems’ as an urgent agenda that demands the attention of the incoming leaders.

This piece by the centre also provides some history into Chinese intelligentsia and their vying to provide intellectual and strategic advice to the contenders for power. Suggestive that the party is not filled with automatons or reinforcing of the idea that the Chinese collective has always been a dynamic process?

China’s Hu and Wen blasted by party paper editor (China Daily Mail, September 4, 2012) provides an interesting perspective on faction and solidarity challenges right at the top.

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The Ten Grave Problems Facing China
by Geremie R Barmé
Source – The China Story by the Australian Centre for China in the World, published September 8, 2012

In April 1956, Mao Zedong gave a speech to the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party titled ‘On the Ten Great Relationships’ 论十大关系. It was a decisive period for New China. The initial surge of nationalisation that saw the country’s industry and agriculture come under state control was building into a tidal wave of radical socialism that would dominate the country for the next two decades. In the build up to this next stage of dirigisme Mao thought it essential to articulate the problems facing the fledgling People’s Republic. He listed ten issues that underlined social, economic, regional and national policy; he was in reality outlining the challenges that faced the Communist Party’s experiment in transforming China.

A popular observation about political uncertainty in Chinese holds that ‘when evil prognosticators appear in all quarters it is a sign of the end of days’ 末世征兆，妖孽四起. Elsewhere we have noted the dire warnings issued by left-leaning critics of China’s Communist Party such as the Children of Yan’an and the latter-day red fundamentalists of the Utopia group. In recent days, an editor with the journal Study Times 学习时报 has published a lengthy article in which he outlines ‘The Ten Grave Problems Facing China’.

During the once-in-a-decade ‘transition year’ of 2012-2013 which will see a change of party-state leadership, Communist Party propagandists have set the tone and require media outlets to celebrate clamorously the ‘ten golden years’ of rule under President/Party General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao (for an example of these hosannas, see People’s Daily, ‘The Reasons for China’s “Glorious Decade” ’, in our China Story Yearbook 2012: Red Rising, Red Eclipse, ‘From Victory to Victory’). It is a time of extreme tension and high stakes, one in which China faces major political decisions that may well determine its direction not only for the next few years, but, as many feel, for long into the future. At this juncture a more lowly Party member than the late Chairman has offered his version of the problems facing the restive and fractured nation. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Australia, Beijing Consensus, Censorship, Chinese Model, Corruption, Crime, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Environment, Fu Er Dai 富二代, Government & Policy, Great Firewall, Green China, History, Human Rights, Inflation, Influence, Infrastructure, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Migration (Internal), military, Modernisation, Nationalism, Natural Disasters, Peaceful Development, Politics, Pollution, Population, Poverty, Property, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, China's Rise, Corruption, culture, Defense, Democracy, Economics, Education, Environment, Nationalism, Natural Resources, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, Transportation

September 19, 2012 • 5:35 am 0

Shanghai Super Girl, China’s American Idol [VBS.TV]

On China’s wave of cultural re-awakening with popular music and democracy. From the now defunct VBS in 2008.

Hunan TV’s Super Girl competition (formerly the Mengniu Sour Yoghurt Super Voice Girl) is the rough Chinese equivalent of American Idol. While pretty much every civilized country has their own Idol knockoff, China’s stands out among the rest by the sheer scale of the proceedings. Last year’s final episode was seen by over 400 million viewers, making it not only the most watched TV program in the history of ever, but giving it a larger audience than the populations of the United States and Britain combined. The show also drew in an estimated 1.2 billion votes over the course the 2007, which in a country that doesn’t even bother with show elections is a pretty major exercise in democracy.

VICE travelled to Shanghai to meet Yang Lei, last year’s Super Girl winner, and the best person we could think of to help guide us through the unyielding insanity that is 21st century China.

Filed under: Art, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Culture, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Human Rights, Intellectual Property, Media, Peaceful Development, People, Population, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, The Chinese Identity, China's Rise, culture, Democracy, Public Diplomacy, Strategy

November 23, 2011 • 1:42 pm 0

U.S.-China Trade Talks End With Promise to Protect Intellectual Property [Bloomberg]

A step in the right direction or move to distract the Americans from yuan valuation and the South China Sea flashpoints? With Sino-US trade rising 17 percent thus far in 2011 to $363.1 billion, commerce is defined by Vice Premier Wang Qishan as an “important cornerstone in the China-U.S. relationship.”

So amidst the China-bashing of late as Obama toured to re-assert American pre-eminence in the Asia-pacific, China pledges to abide by international intellectual property rules. Quick Background: Understanding Chinese Attitudes Towards Intellectual Property (IP) Rights (CIO 2006).

This is a move the US expects of responsible international stakeholders - “With that extraordinary growth that China has enjoyed over the last decade comes a responsibility, particularly as it relates to trade and investment,” U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk.

So, is China listening and participating or biding its time on something else?

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U.S.-China Trade Talks End With Promise to Protect Intellectual Property
Source – Bloomberg, published November 22, 2011

China pledged to improve its monitoring of intellectual property rights in trade talks with the U.S., as American officials called on the world’s second biggest economy to abide by international rules.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan’s promise to create and lead an office focused on protecting intellectual property rights was a “step in the right direction,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg Television after the 22nd U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting in Chengdu.

“There’s no question that intellectual property rights have not been respected for the most part here in China,” Bryson said. “We think this is a step in the right direction but there is a long ways to go in having intellectual property rights consistently and broadly recognized in China.” Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Bloomberg, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Domestic Growth, Economics, Finance, Influence, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Piracy, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade

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Wandering China

#China Bashing Bears Fruit: Apple Moves Bring Manufacturing Home [Huffington Post]

Jaguar Land Rover building factory in China [Guardian]

Chinese automakers to tap Brazil through local production [Want China Times]

No joke, China job creator for US [China Daily]

U.S.-China Trade Talks End With Promise to Protect Intellectual Property [Bloomberg]

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