[kitschshrine]

Why would any foreigner want to start a company in a country that

- requires you to give up 50% to a local partner

- blocks internet access to foreign websites (thus foreign customers)

- can take away your business/assets/customers without trials

- treats foreigners as a mere entity to steal technology and clients from?

[bobjordan]

As an American that has 100% ownership in two China legal enterprises, not sure where some items in your bullet list are coming from. Yes, there are unique difficulties. No, communist hard-liners are not setting over my shoulder plotting to take my business without a trial.

[eritansa]

It seems a lot of people still have this old idea about China. The 51% Chinese ownership requirement hasn't been a thing for almost 20 years.

[idra]

That's only if your company is a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE), which come with its own special set of deliberately roadblocks which are not there if a Chinese partner is involved.

[da02]

What cities/towns are the enterprises located in? What was the most difficult thing you encountered so far?

[juice_bus]

Likely the allure of so many potential customers that are otherwise inaccessible. (I'm not saying this is a valid reason to ignore the above, but potentially why some might.)

[matz1]

Its high risk but the potential return is also great.

[kitschshrine]

China's economy is crashing. no free lunch anymore. just look at their reserve and debt ratio

[shshhdhs]

I'm not an economist, so could you elaborate how this indicates a crashing economy?

[powerapple]

if the Chinese economy is crashing, I think it is a pretty good thing. Just imaging when it is not 'crashing'.

[candiodari]

> - requires you to give up 50% to a local partner

Chinese people. Don't worry, there's plenty. And they do not have subpar education, nor do they have less intellectual capacity (hell, most studies seem to conclude they have -just a little- more, on average).

> - blocks internet access to foreign websites (thus foreign customers)

I think you'll find that inbound commerce (or outbound commerce) is not all that restricted. Some movies, yes. And newspapers (do they still exist ?). That's about it. Other than that, it's not more restricted than in the west (ie. large amounts expenditures require government/irs/... approval one way or the other).

> - can take away your business/assets/customers without trials

It's not like Japan did it for 30 years before that ... By the way ... how did the US get started on it's industrial base ? Could it have been copying ?

> - treats foreigners as a mere entity to steal technology and clients from?

Again, one wonders how Europeans think about America in this area. Yep, similarly.

[kitschshrine]

> And they do not have subpar education

you seem to be wanting to argue about something which I did not even bring up. internet is not a place you start arguing with yourself.

> it's not more restricted than in the west

Yeah....you keep telling yourself that. I don't think you've actually been to China where foreigners struggles to hit youtube/facebook/google using a variety of VPN tools every day

I think I'll stop...there's too much cognitive dissonance here

[chvid]

The answer is obvious: They want to tap into the largest growth market in the world.

And in many ways it is a plus that is not heavily regulated and dominated by a few american tech giants.

[eritansa]

It's unfortunate you're being downvoted. I highly recommend the book, Bad Samaritans [1] as it shows that all developed countries followed a similar pattern of IP theft and protectionism.

1. https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Samaritans-Secret-History-Capital...

[da02]

Sidenote: Jeff Tucker mentioned how the US in the 1800s enforced American authors' IP, but not British. So school teachers ended up using the cheaper British authored books instead of the Americans. Leading to more British authors becoming famous in the US.

[lacampbell]

100% agreed. I would never try and start a business in such a poisonous environment.