Anti-China Bill Being Softened After US Companies Complain (reuters.com) 71
Proposed legislation in Congress aimed at preventing China from acquiring sensitive technology is being softened after protests by big U.S. companies who fear a loss in sales, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. From the report: Two bills in the House of Representatives and Senate would broaden the powers of the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in hopes of stopping Chinese efforts to acquire sophisticated U.S. technology. The bipartisan legislation has the support of President Donald Trump's administration. "We are concerned that it vastly expands the scope and jurisdiction (of CFIUS)," said Nancy McLernon, chief executive of the Organization for International Investment, a group that represents global companies with U.S. operations. Given the alarm that the legislation has caused, Senator John Cornyn's staff is drafting changes to address industry concerns, according to three sources. Cornyn's office did not respond to a request for comment.
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The shortest lived super power status in human history.
USA is still A -but not THE- "super power", as it was for the last couple of centuries, and probably remain in the future (until the end of history...?!).
As a Greek (i.e., descendant of a former "super power" -Hellenic/Byzantine-, some time ago...) i understand/feel history and this "super power status" time scale differently than most people - since you mentioned them, Chinese people can understand/feel me in this way a lot better than USA citizens.
USA (as any other "super power" country/nation, in any his
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200 years ago was 1818. The U.S. had successfully fought off a half-hearted attempted by the British to snuff it out. The U.S. was in no way a super-power. It was weak, disunited and had little foreign trade. In 1919, the U.S. had successfully finished entering and leaving Europe for WWI. Wilson couldn't have gotten in sooner than 1917 because the U.S. was too weak. Even then Pershing spent so much time training in Europe that the Europeans were complaining it was all for show. After the war, the U.S. cut i
Re: China is kickin USA's ass... (Score:1)
Trump is helping China (Score:1, Insightful)
If you look objectively and strategically at the moves Trump has made regarding China, he has done nothing but help them.
Whether getting out of TPP, his erratic behavior towards allies, cutting overseas funding, radically dividing the US politically, etc, etc.
Trump has created a huge power and influence vacuum that the Chinese are rapidly asserting control over.
The isolationist view of those who put Trump into power will inevitably lead the US closer to conflict with China, or even Russia.
For all his anti-C
China, 1st economy (Score:2)
I think they are the biggest economy... (Score:2)
and the US owes them over a trillion dollars.
I'm not going to cherry pick any stats to point fingers at what is to blame, because our deficit (and debts) have been increasing for many years. A recession doesn't help, neither does funding wars. The reality is that we can never pay back our debts, and it's unlikely that those we owe money to can effectively collect it. But it can give them leverage against us, and there's not much we can do about it.
Heh... (Score:2)
Must be a hard thing to balance the corporation's interests with the paranoia machine from the extreme right and military patriots.
Notice how the public interest is nowhere to be found in that equation.
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Yes. The "swamp draining" continues unabaited.
Re:Heh... (Score:4, Insightful)
There was no swamp, that was merely el Presidente Tweetie ginning up yet another fake antagonist for himself. He did a bank shot off the Republican view that the Federal government exists for itself. The Federal government looks the way it does because the American people want it that way. ePT cannot exist without straw men to get his followers excited about...it is just typical despot behavior done over the centuries the world over. No imagination, no class.
Convenient euphemism (Score:3)
"Swamp" is just shorthand for "people [in Washington DC] who disagree with him." If he gains their approval, they're no longer the swamp. When he does something daft and they point out as much, they're part of the swamp again.
Re: Convenient euphemism (Score:1)
Uh. No. Swampies is well-known klan slang for black people.
Trump plans to drain all the black people from around the D.C. area so whitey feels safe again.
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It's not really about paranoia. It is people that are so insecure that they need to shit on someone to feel good about themselves.
This leads to posturing and playing "tough guy".
The problem is that it only works if the other party plays along and let you have your moment Trump could easily have gotten away with the posturing if he just gave China something with the other hand, but Trump is a bully, not a negotiator.
When China says: OK, then I'll take my ball and leave, Trump just falls apart.
He doesn't know
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It is no longer paranoia when it becomes known that the conspiracy that was merely suspected, is discovered to be actually occurring. So, in case you were wondering; yes, China is devoting substantial resources in maintaining their active development program to exploit *any* deficiency; in any country, including, and especially focused on the USA.
Re:China's anti-US policies (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't anything new.
The chinese have been spying and their espionage ranges from military to commercial.....and we really used to be cognizant of it and fight it back in the earlier days.
However, back then (60's and earlier), china wasn't the econmomic powerhouse they have become in recent decades....and while we like the money, we've let our guard down and let them take the upper hand in negotiations, etc.
The thing is, China thinks waaaay ahead with their plans, whereas we in the US seem to do well to see past 5 days, much less a year at a time.
I'm not a huge Trump fan, but one thing that the administration seems to at least be doing, is trying in some ways to address chinese aggression, which IS going on, has been going on, and trust me, they have long term laid plans to KEEP being aggressive.
They spy on everyone (not just the US)....and look how they are trying to encroach on international waters off their coast with the building of artificial "islands" and militarizing them.
Yes, we have to work with them, but we need to be wary of them and WILLING to stand up to them and say "no" from time to time.
If we only think of the commercial all mighty dollar in short term plans and actions, we'll lose the fight more than we already are doing currently.
We're letting them have too much leverage on us and the world as it is....
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They spy on everyone (not just the US)
Well, that just makes them like the British. And probably the U.S., too.
Our corporations deserve Chinese labor! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Our corporations deserve Chinese labor! (Score:5, Informative)
You joke, but there have already been voices that we should do away with compulsory education and child labor laws.
And yes, I mean in the US.
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I starting working when I was 12 which is completely legal in the US if it's a family owned business.
There is nothing wrong with learning responsibility and doing a little hard work when you are young so long as it doesn't interfere with education.
My kids didn't work that young but you better believe I had chores for them to do.
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There is nothing wrong with learning responsibility and doing a little hard work when you are young so long as it doesn't interfere with education.
This is the crucial part here. Because the idea is that you don't really need that much of an education if you're only supposed to be working menial jobs. And when you're poor and can't afford education, why would you want to better yourself anyway, go work, serf!
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Working in the metal shop with my Dad taught me one very important thing. I wanted to work smarter not harder. My father was constantly finding new ways and even making new kinds of tools to do the job faster and easier. His best hope for me was that I wouldn't be part of the family business and he told me frequently.
Which is why I got an education and and don't work in the family business. That business is closed now and all of my siblings went to college and do something else.
This could benefit China (Score:2, Insightful)
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It'll also ensure that the US maintains a trade deficit with China... You want to close the trade deficit, well you've got to sell things that China wants. See the disaster that happened when the government banned Intel Xeon chips exports for Chinese supercomputers.
What happened, did Chinese supercomputing industry collapse? Nope, we forced China to design their own chips and they now hold the top 2 positions in the Top 500 supercomputer list. We lost the top positions and got no money for it. And in a deca
The proposed changes are (Score:5, Informative)
The current draft of the bill would allow the committee to review certain deals related to handing over "critical technology" or a "critical infrastructure" company. Two potential changes have been suggested. Congress could define more precisely what those terms mean, limiting the committee's review power more specifically. Congress could also delete those provisions as they relate to transactions other than China buying a US company. Transactions in which China buys the "critical technology" output from US companies could then be regulated by other agencies which handle export controls.
"free" trade liars (Score:1)
There is no such thing as free trade. The liars that push that narrative are just sock puppets for the rich. They continually try to float the Great Depression as being due to trade wars rather than their casino market games in the 1920's and *still* referring to discredited idiots like Irving Fisher. You ever notice that when the rich tell us through their media puppets that "the USA is the biggest marketplace in the world." they also push this irrational dichotomy that we are powerless to control trade in
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Here is an idea for you. Take all the unemployed able bodied, give them room & board, basic access to the internet, 3 meals a day, and the only requirement is that they dig or fill a hole of dirt for 8 hours a day. Its actually a better idea than the inefficiencies you proposed. The societal healthcare cost reduction from the workout alone will be a better benefit than all the inefficient jobs your proposal generates.
Let me be blunt, NO I don't want your shitty, small, few options, higher cost Joe's
You understand it, but don't (Score:3, Insightful)
>. 'Its less efficient to have a zillion independent stores versus a few thousand Wal Marts you say? Yes, but it's much more job-intensive.
You're exactly right, that would be less efficient, needing more people to work to produce the same amount of stuff.
I wonder what you're estimates are to fill in these blanks:
If it takes 1 person to produce and sell $100,000 of value, that person can be paid a maximum of $__________.
If it takes 10 people to produce and sell $100,000 of value, each of those ten peopl
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So, what's your solution? Cede our markets to China and the WTO? Let people dump endlessly subsidized products in *OUR* m
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> So, what's your solution? Cede our markets to China and the WTO?
Can we agree that dividing up jobs so that American laborers each make less than Chinese laborers, or about the same amount, isn't a solution? (Average salary in China is equal to $5,000 / year, with unskilled labor earning much less than that.)
Or do you ANY interest AT ALL in solutions? Would you prefer to drone on about "fat cats doing labor arbitrage" without having the most basic understanding of economics 101? With a little litera
Getting down to brass tacks (Score:2)
The discussion above was interesting and all, but you asked about solutions. For solutions, we can get down to the brass tacks and clearly see some obvious truths that often get lost in the complexity of economic theory.
Imagine 5 pioneer families arrive out West. It's just the five of families. They all want more food and cotton and clothes and "stuff". How can they all get "more stuff"? What method of dividing it up will make more stuff appear? None, of course. To have more stuff, they need to produc
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Might feel good, but results in Lowe pay, higher p (Score:2)
You might feel good doing that, becoming protectionist and barring trade. It would absolutely, unquestionably, reduce your real income.
When and why would you and I trade two items? Would you ever trade something that's you think is worth $100, in order to get something that's worth $1 to you? Probably not; probably the other way around, right? You'd trade something you don't need for something you do need. If you had a ton of cucumbers growing all over your yard, so you had more cucumbers than you want, a
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Is this Slashdot or Leftdot? (Score:1)
Wait (Score:2)
its backwards (Score:1)
This is insanely stupid WE (the US) import critical infrastructure and technology from China. They are, or will be soon, taking or the lead in everything tech ... robotics, machine learning, computing, etc..
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I"m not the biggest Trump supporter in the world, but I think you might have misread things:
This really is fake news. (Score:3, Interesting)
Proposed legislation in Congress aimed at preventing China from acquiring sensitive technology is being softened after protests by big U.S. companies who fear a loss in sales
This portion of the summary conflicts with the facts:
Nancy McLernon, chief executive of the Organization for International Investment, a group that represents global companies with U.S. operations
The truthful facts of this issue is that China is stealing or being given sensitive technology that harms US companies and interests. An organization representing the non-US companies that benefit from IP theft and noncompetitive quasi-legal corporate espionage practices says stopping that flow of technology will harm sales.
Of course it will harm their sales. That is the point!
Do we run news articles about prisoners that believe harsher penalties on crime will harm their freedoms and claim law-abiding citizens made the claim?
Of course not. For that would be, at best, propaganda of a narrow interest group.
Reuters knows better. Msmash knows better.
News? (Score:4, Informative)
This is why the concern over Huawei and ZTE is puzzling as many/all mobiles are already made in the PRC, why would these be any different. It has also been shown before that the PRC or jsut about anyone with the right numbers can buy their way through to getting anything they want from the US government. One need only look at the quagmire created by Hillary Clinton selling rubber stamp approval and access as SOS.
“Countries have the right to development, but they should view their own interests in the broader context. And refrain from pursuing their own interests at the expense of others.” - Xi Jinping
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In the last few decades, much of the American technology sector has been built and run by Chinese immigrants on H1B visa programme, because evidently, Americans could simply not do the work themselves. How do you feel about this? Is it relevant to you and other people who keep regurgitating the old "IP theft" bullshit?
It's kind of funny when you think about it (Score:1)
because much of this "U.S. technology" was invented and developed by HIGHLY EDUCATED CHINESE NATIONALS ON H1B VISAS. You should be thankful you have it, because they literally gave it to you, and they're certainly not stealing it when they apply it back home.