And China is the second largest market for American movies, which absolutely require IP law to function. So I think this concern is overstated.

* Facebook: WeChat/Weibo

* Google: Baidu

* Apple: already being made in China, clones everywhere

* Amazon: Alibaba

On the contrary, WeChat is leaps and bounds ahead of Facebook Messenger (which is a more direct comparison). If you've watched Facebook Messenger over time, it's actually Facebook Messenger that's aspiring to be the WeChat of the west.

I use Baidu Maps every time I visit China. Heavily disappointed, it comes nowhere near Google Maps's quality.

How so?

Here's what Wikipedia says in its PageRank entry:

>A small search engine called "RankDex" from IDD Information Services designed by Robin Li was, since 1996, already exploring a similar strategy for site-scoring and page ranking.[16] The technology in RankDex would be patented by 1999[17] and used later when Li founded Baidu in China.[18][19] Li's work would be referenced by some of Larry Page's U.S. patents for his Google search methods.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank#cite_ref-20

I don't think Google is a Baidu clone but in the cavalier way that people accuse other people of copying the timeline only supports Larry copying Robin Li.

And that's before you get into the fact that China really doesn't want any foreign info-based companies operating in its borders, given their heavy propaganda machine. They'll tolerate it only until they can clone it and expel it.

At the very least it looks like Cisco doesn't willingly do that with the NSA.

That should count for something.

Else we'll have to learn to trade like the Chinese, and it's almost inconceivable - they'll fuck you the first chance they get, like some third world shithole, they have no principles in my experience.

It's kinda weird when you think about it. A Western manager thinks that Chinese or Indians are content to do as they are told and lack the ability or ambition to compete, so just outsource the work. But the truth is they are just as smart as anyone, and have the same aspirations as everyone else and are ruthless about getting it just as the West was in the imperial colonial days.

I get that it's all cheaper, if that's the problem let it be more expensive, not lower quality.

Hollywood movies do well in China but aren't particularly profitable.

It's central to the current world event. The major theme of the 21st century is going to be china's growth in power vs the US.

Power is a zero sum game after all. If china's power increases, it's going to come at the expense of the lone superpower.

> If China wants to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure to develop their region that's a great thing for America too.

A china-centered economic order isn't a "great thing for America".

> Eventually the demand for low-margin, subsidized, Chinese steel will flatten, while the demand for high-margin American technology and cultural products will grow.

What makes you think that china isn't going to take over the high-end steel market too?

Unless you think chinese are intellectually incapable of developing high-end steel...