China Says It Doesn't Steal, Gets Caught Stealing

China claims it originated or bought technology for their high-speed rail projects, and didn't steal it. This is a Google translation -- Refuting the State Intellectual Property Office of China's high-speed rail [1]:

China news agency, Chengdu, November 22 (Xu Yangyi) - Intellectual Property Office of China on the 22nd Tian said that China's high-speed rail technology with their own reality, so that the integrated innovation, formed their own characteristics, the foreign "China High Speed Rail Technology, plagiarism "accusations totally realistic. China can now only repair in the mountains, high-speed rail.

. . . Speaking outside the Chinese self-developed high-speed rail technology challenge, Tian sharp-tongued. "We buy the technology plus Germany and Japan Law, which is paid in accordance with international rules of patent fees, this is legal. Digesting other people's technology, combined with their own situation and created something new, how is it plagiarism?"

Also in the news, Chinese National Stole Ford Secrets Worth More Than $50 Million [2]:

A ten year veteran of the U.S. automaker Ford Motor Company pleaded guilty in federal court on November 17 to charges that he stole company secrets, including design documents, worth more than $50 million and sharing them with his new employer: the Chinese division of a U.S. rival of Ford's.

Xiang Dong ("Mike") Yu admitted to copying some 4,000 Ford Documents to a external hard drive, including system design specifications for Ford's cars after surreptitiously taking a job with a competitor in 2006.

. . . According to the Plea Agreement, Yu obtained documents containing prized Ford design documents... Yu was a Product Engineer at Ford, where he had worked since 1997, but the documents taken had no connection to his work at Ford.

... Yu later accepted a job with a Chinese based competitor of Ford's, Beijing Automotive Company, of Shenzhen, China, in November, 2008

Look, people are people. People do what people do. China is desperate for technological advance, and they will do what people do everywhere. They will innovate, purchase, license ... and steal.

Keep your eyes wide open when working with Chinese companies. And French companies, German, British, Russian ... even Canadian?

(H/T Slashdot [3])

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