[ZeroGravitas]

Also, if all the Chinese are doing is going and looking up all the publicly funded research then the system is working as intended, just as if they needed some kind of software and came back with something open source. There's no need for them to "steal" Microsoft's tech if they can get something suitable with a better licence.

[TheKarateKid]

Did you fully read the OP's comment? We're not talking software here -- we're talking hardware, engineering, and many other things that you don't just get a copy of the how-to's from open source projects.

[ZeroGravitas]

The claim is that the Chinese are copying stuff via industrial espionage. I get that.

But Apple also sued Samsung for using rounded corners on a phone. So there's a lot of gray area in IP enforcement.

A similar non-chinese example is the AV1 codec from Google or the Android compatibility with Java. Both are claimed to be IP theft by other western parties. I don't think either of those claims hold up, and I have no real reason to believe that China's violations are any more morally suspect without a lot more specifics.

Modern IP enforcement has left me in a "boy who cried wolf" mentality when it comes to infringement. To be honest I'm more scared of China playing that game in a hardball manner than I am of them ignoring it.

[specialist]

Our current IP protections are copyright, patent, and trade secrets. It's a mistake to conflate the three. Stealing trade secrets is a bit different from mimicking another's visual identity (rounded corners).

[TheKarateKid]

Apple, Samsung, Google, etc. may all have infringed at times, but their entire product and companies are not based off of infringement. Even in the products they infringe, the majority of it is their own.

These Chinese companies literally clone the entire product. Entire businesses are based off theft.