Is China observing intellectual property rights?

It is true. China is gearing up its machinery to practice intellectual property rights. But it is only protecting IPs that has an indigenous origin! It is protecting patents belonging to its own citizens, not those of foreigners. They have now informed foreign countries that they will only buy if there is a Chinese owned patent on the products and services. In other words, they have turn one hundred and eighty degrees and will only respect intellectual properties owned by Chinese. If foreigners wish to win state procurement tenders, they will have to dish out half of the inventor ship to Chinese citizens. That precisely is throwing up a wall to contain foreign imports. From court records, there is very little prosecution of its citizens for intellectual property infringements. But it does bring to prosecution where foreigners are caught ripping off Chinese video games!

We must understand that China is run by an authoritarian regime. What the authority says goes. No objection what so ever. And they know they are wining the intellectual property game. If required, China can close its doors now and still be able to make it to the next cycle. The west would have to look somewhere else for their markets, and in these bad climate, they and not China will be the first to go under. Such is the scenario: the new game is protectionism, and its survival for only the fittest. Obviously the fittest is the one with the most cash around. No matter what pressure the US is putting up, China will normally play the delaying game. One thing that comes to mind is the controversy over the Iranian nuclear embargo which Washington spearheaded. China has a lot of interest in Iran, and will not agree to any sanction, but instead see to it that its money is not getting burn.

China is now sailing to its near neighbors. For the moment, it is more interested in striking a working relationship with ASEAN, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Africa. It has already struck a free trade deal with ASEAN and will be signing more deals with Japan and Korea. It has used its large pool of funds to acquire companies around the world. It has bought iron mines, oil concessions, and other world brands. Whilst the west is struggling to overcome the recession, China is diligently building up its asset base. Its maxim is buying when it is cheap and when others can only look and not act. In the meanwhile, it is dragging its feet as far as revaluing its currency is concerned, much to the consternation of the US and the rest of the world.