Competition between China and Korea
The article sounds pretty bias as if China is heavily engaged in espionage to obtain leading technology from Korea, especially in online games, cell phones and displays.
Basically, however the Korean companies signed contracts with companies in China or with companies that are very engaged in China and now, the newspapers are screaming that this is undermining Korea's competitiveness.
The are describing the case of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, China's leading online game provider, that "inked a $91.7 million (US$??) contract to buy a controlling 29% stake in Korean game developer Actoz Soft." Or the case of Hyundai Syscomm that was made public in Korea last month. It was disclosed that "the firm sold source technologies for code division multiple access (CDMA) to a Korean unit of UTStarcomm, a U.S.-based telecom equipment maker, for US$14 million. Although headquartered in the United States, UTStarcomm retains close relations with China as most of its revenues have come from services provided on the mainland." While they were trying to nullify the contract, the prosecution dropped the suit on the grounds that it is not a technology leakage because the transaction was made between two Korean-based firms.
Okay - it is known that there are a lot of copycats in China - the famous story of Jack Welsh comes to mind who said in his biography that GE once opened a lightbulb plant (was it?) in China and the next months, 50 new lightbulb plants were opened by Chinese operators. Everybody knows this, but many companies start profiting from China. And if those are contracts between companies, and they are fair, well, than that is business. And nothing to mourn about, or? It sounds pretty similar to the many complaints that come from the US about outsourcing to India and how this would hollow-out the US economy.
(By Asia Business Consulting)
Basically, however the Korean companies signed contracts with companies in China or with companies that are very engaged in China and now, the newspapers are screaming that this is undermining Korea's competitiveness.
The are describing the case of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, China's leading online game provider, that "inked a $91.7 million (US$??) contract to buy a controlling 29% stake in Korean game developer Actoz Soft." Or the case of Hyundai Syscomm that was made public in Korea last month. It was disclosed that "the firm sold source technologies for code division multiple access (CDMA) to a Korean unit of UTStarcomm, a U.S.-based telecom equipment maker, for US$14 million. Although headquartered in the United States, UTStarcomm retains close relations with China as most of its revenues have come from services provided on the mainland." While they were trying to nullify the contract, the prosecution dropped the suit on the grounds that it is not a technology leakage because the transaction was made between two Korean-based firms.
Okay - it is known that there are a lot of copycats in China - the famous story of Jack Welsh comes to mind who said in his biography that GE once opened a lightbulb plant (was it?) in China and the next months, 50 new lightbulb plants were opened by Chinese operators. Everybody knows this, but many companies start profiting from China. And if those are contracts between companies, and they are fair, well, than that is business. And nothing to mourn about, or? It sounds pretty similar to the many complaints that come from the US about outsourcing to India and how this would hollow-out the US economy.
(By Asia Business Consulting)
posted by Andreas @ 8:51 pm
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