News last week that the administration of Donald Trump is engaged in “serious discussions” over Chinese intellectual property rights abuses and policies is to be broadly welcomed. The discussions centre on whether to start an investigation under Section 301, a punitive bilateral weapon in the US trade arsenal. The probe would focus on Chinese rules that require foreign companies to transfer technology to local partners.
Such a focus is sorely needed. Not only has intellectual property become a key battleground between China and the west as Chinese companies vault up the technology ladder, the regime that Beijing has created to coerce transfers from foreign companies is also often unfair and sometimes cynical.
In industries from power generation to high-speed rail and computer chips to electric cars, China has forced US, European and other foreign companies to form joint ventures or share research with local counterparts. Access to China’s booming marketplace is often linked explicitly or implicitly to the foreign company’s progress in transferring technology.