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G.E. to Share Jet Technology With China in New Joint Venture

Ahlevah

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As China strives for leadership in the world’s most advanced industries, it sees commercial jetliners — planes that may someday challenge the best from Boeing and Airbus — as a top prize.

And no Western company has been more aggressive in helping China pursue that dream than one of the aviation industry’s biggest suppliers of jet engines and airplane technology, General Electric.

On Friday, during the visit of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, to the United States, G.E. plans to sign a joint-venture agreement in commercial aviation that shows the tricky risk-and-reward calculations American corporations must increasingly make in their pursuit of lucrative markets in China.

G.E., in the partnership with a state-owned Chinese company, will be sharing its most sophisticated airplane electronics, including some of the same technology used in Boeing’s new state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner.

For G.E., the pact is a chance to build upon an already well-established business in China, where the company has booming sales of jet engines, mainly to Chinese airlines that are now buying Boeing and Airbus planes. But doing business in China often requires Western multinationals like G.E. to share technology and trade secrets that might eventually enable Chinese companies to beat them at their own game — by making the same products cheaper, if not better.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/business/global/18plane.html?_r=2&ref=business

So much for "comparative advantage." And this is just arrogance:

For the most part, Western aviation executives say the Chinese are simply too far behind in both civilian and military airplane technology to cause any real fears anytime soon — although it does put pressure on Boeing and Airbus to continue to innovate and stay technologically ahead of China.
 
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For the most part, Western aviation executives say the Chinese are simply too far behind in both civilian and military airplane technology to cause any real fears anytime soon — although it does put pressure on Boeing and Airbus to continue to innovate and stay technologically ahead of China.
Unbelievable.

They were far behind when they got the rocket technology during the Clinton years, and all of a sudden their rockets started performing exceptionally well.

Yeah, considering the past decade... why not give away competitive advantage in our highest tech industries too? The Chinese had been clever, trying to buy companies in a clandestine manner that had to do with high tech that were going out of business, and then would win all their expertise and plans... now let's practically give it away upfront.

Face palm.

I would like to hear Jack Welch's take on this. I respect the guy enormously.

.
 
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This is how capital works. The Chinese can pay and our companies sell. They are concerned with profits, not national security. Is it GE's job to protect this country?
 
This is how capital works. The Chinese can pay and our companies sell. They are concerned with profits, not national security. Is it GE's job to protect this country?

No... but they should be concerned about the longterm competitive nature of their company, and look out for longterm shareholder value.

.
 
No... but they should be concerned about the longterm competitive nature of their company, and look out for longterm shareholder value.

.

If companies were to do that, they would worry about providing jobs that would enable Americans to afford their products.
 
This is how capital works. The Chinese can pay and our companies sell. They are concerned with profits, not national security. Is it GE's job to protect this country?

Apparently, it used to be:

August 4, 1914: Great Britain declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, joining in the start of World War I, or The Great War. Radio traffic across the Atlantic Ocean swells as the Germans cut Allied cable telegraphs and governments and businesses have even more to discuss.

June 4, 1915: Nally proposes to General Electric Company that GE and American Marconi organize a joint monopoly for the production and operation of wireless communications technology (GE’s scientists and engineers have developed powerful means of transmitting Morse code and voice by both electromechanical and electron-tube means).

April 8, 1919: Captain Stanford C. Hooper and Admiral W. H. G. Bullard, U. S. Navy, meet with General Electric Company executives to ask that they not sell their Alexanderson alternators to the Marconi companies. This marks the beginning of negotiations by which GE would buy American Marconi and organize what would become the Radio Corporation of America.

David Sarnoff Library

Today, GE's Chinese joint-venture partner that it wants to transfer technology to is a state-owned holding company with subsidiaries that produce both civilian and military aircraft. The Chinese are holding the carrot of market access in order to gain access to our technology. That's not capitalism, bud. That's looking out for your national interest, something we used to be good at.
 
Is it GE's job to protect this country?

It certainly is the job of our idiot president and the Congress. They should not allow GE to share technology with China.

If companies were to do that, they would worry about providing jobs that would enable Americans to afford their products.

Are you serious? GE pays vey well and if they paid their workers enough so that they could all buy a GE jet engine they couldn’t pay dividends to the share holders – who own the company. If very many share holders sell their stock GE would have no borrowing power and would die.
 
This is how capital works. The Chinese can pay and our companies sell. They are concerned with profits, not national security. Is it GE's job to protect this country?

I think they owe us something.

GE gets $2.5M in stimulus money

GE gets $2.5M in stimulus money | Business First

(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration gave corporate giant General Electric—the parent company of NBC--$24.9 million in grants from the $787-billion economic “stimulus”

Obama Administration Gave General Electric

GE pays no tax in 2009
GE, Exxon Paid No Taxes in '09

The medical-equipment manufacturing unit at General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) generated $4.7 billion in revenues during the quarter, up nearly $900 million from the previous three-month period. Segment profit topped the previous quarter by $403 million, or 79.3 percent, climbing from $508 million during the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2009, to $911 million over the final three months of the year.

GE Healthcare's Q4 profits spike 80 percent over Q3 | MassDevice - Medical Device Industry News

By MSNBC Standards, GE's $16 Billion in Bailout Loans Compromises NBC News Coverage | NewsBusters.org
 
Are you serious?

I think he's being sarcastic, unless the "slightly liberal" label is a facade. But I've seen plenty of "conservatives" who would sacrifice their first-born sons for a nickel.
 
This is how capital works. The Chinese can pay and our companies sell. They are concerned with profits, not national security. Is it GE's job to protect this country?

Don't you think it's a bad idea to sell military technology to a country that we might have to face on the battlefield one day?
 
Don't you think it's a bad idea to sell military technology to a country that we might have to face on the battlefield one day?

I cannot believe that I am hearing from Conservatives a call on the government to stop a business from entering a new market!

And of course it is a bad idea, but somebody had to take GE's side.
 
I cannot believe that I am hearing from Conservatives a call on the government to stop a business from entering a new market!

And of course it is a bad idea, but somebody had to take GE's side.

If GE was selling lawn sprinklers, I would agree. But, sooner or later, common sense has to takeover.
 
I cannot believe that I am hearing from Conservatives a call on the government to stop a business from entering a new market!

Don't confuse conservatives with the libertarian nincompoops who equate albondigas and soda pop with guided missiles and fighter jets.
 
So much for "comparative advantage." And this is just arrogance:

Ahh, I remember a commercial here.......

Gee!

No, G. E.

No, I mean Gee, this crap doesn't work.

:mrgreen:
 
I work for a DOD global contractor. The nations that we are not allowed to sell equipment to are: Libya, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and Iraq.

I don't see China on my list.
 
This is how capital works. The Chinese can pay and our companies sell. They are concerned with profits, not national security. Is it GE's job to protect this country?

Unfortunately this is true.

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
-Thomas Jefferson
 
Don't you think it's a bad idea to sell military technology to a country that we might have to face on the battlefield one day?

Why do you assume we may go to war with them one day? Has China been aggressively doing war games with its client states near the US to send American a message? Has it been taking the anti-US side in any dispute near the US?
 
Unfortunately this is true.

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."
-Thomas Jefferson

Bravo! My point exactly!
 
Ultimately, I do not think we have much to fear from China gaining jet engines. If GE will not sell them to them, Russia would eventually anyway. Also, at least by this path we will know what China has in the way of jet propulsion and with their poor standards of quality, I should hope we remain much ahead of whatever they can produce.

This being said, I do not ever really see the US going to war with China. Perhaps we will enter some sort of Cold War type of tension with them, but not complete war. Further more, China's economy, though it appears solid and on the rise, is in reality very feeble and only maintained through manipulation and the suppression of their currency. I look for a Chinese economic collapse in the near future.
 
This being said, I do not ever really see the US going to war with China.

Why not? We fought with them during the Korean War. That's not that long ago. We've almost butted heads with them on several occasions during the Cold War over issues such as American support for Taiwan and Chinese support for North Vietnam. The country is rapidly industrializing, and, as such, will increasingly compete for resources with Western countries. It's also clear that the PLA has its tentacles into much of the decision making in the country, including what industries to pursue under the nation's industrial policy. It's rapidly modernizing its military, and it has a rising cadre of younger communist bureaucrats who are more nationalistic and antagonistic towards foreign, especially American, interests. There's also been an increase in complaints recently from foreign businesses conducting operations in the country that they're not being dealt with on a fair and equal basis with Chinese firms.

So I see plenty of reasons to proceed cautiously with the Chinese, and not assume they're not a threat. There are many similarities between China's ascendance today and Japan's during the early part of the last century. Japan went from ally during WW1 to foe during WWII to friend again (after we won, in spite of them being good students in Western military strategy and technology).
 
Why do you assume we may go to war with them one day? Has China been aggressively doing war games with its client states near the US to send American a message? Has it been taking the anti-US side in any dispute near the US?

How familiar are you with the doctrine and tactics of the People's Liberation Army?
 
Why not? We fought with them during the Korean War. That's not that long ago. We've almost butted heads with them on several occasions during the Cold War over issues such as American support for Taiwan and Chinese support for North Vietnam. The country is rapidly industrializing, and, as such, will increasingly compete for resources with Western countries. It's also clear that the PLA has its tentacles into much of the decision making in the country, including what industries to pursue under the nation's industrial policy. It's rapidly modernizing its military, and it has a rising cadre of younger communist bureaucrats who are more nationalistic and antagonistic towards foreign, especially American, interests. There's also been an increase in complaints recently from foreign businesses conducting operations in the country that they're not being dealt with on a fair and equal basis with Chinese firms.

So I see plenty of reasons to proceed cautiously with the Chinese, and not assume they're not a threat. There are many similarities between China's ascendance today and Japan's during the early part of the last century. Japan went from ally during WW1 to foe during WWII to friend again (after we won, in spite of them being good students in Western military strategy and technology).

Our conflicts with them occurred as Mao was attempting to bring them to the world stage, and his actions were intended to make the world take notice of China as a real world player. Now we are dealing with a world economy and of course US firms are not going to be treated fairly in respect to state-owned businesses. It is a communist countr for God's sake. Did they not know this when they rushed there to take advantage of the cheap labor?

In regards to future war, the Chinese own our debt and we are their biggest consumer base. It will serve them none at all to go to war with us. Thus they will posture and threaten. All they really want is respect, and to them the only way to show this is for us to end the selling of arms to Taiwan. If we did so we would find China very cooperative on a number of issues.
 
Our conflicts with them occurred as Mao was attempting to bring them to the world stage, and his actions were intended to make the world take notice of China as a real world player. Now we are dealing with a world economy and of course US firms are not going to be treated fairly in respect to state-owned businesses. It is a communist countr for God's sake. Did they not know this when they rushed there to take advantage of the cheap labor?

I don't think Western businesses overall, in their rush to cash in on Chinese markets, fully considered the political risk to their investments. They really need to study Chinese history and take account of the ebb and flow of the nation's attitudes toward foreigners and foreign interests on Chinese soil.

In regards to future war, the Chinese own our debt and we are their biggest consumer base. It will serve them none at all to go to war with us. Thus they will posture and threaten. All they really want is respect, and to them the only way to show this is for us to end the selling of arms to Taiwan. If we did so we would find China very cooperative on a number of issues.

The Chinese are diversifying away from U.S. debt and will gradually move to lessen the link between their currency and the dollar. This is because they're losing faith in our ability to maintain the value of the currency and they don't want their inflationary fortunes tied to ours.

China has codified into its laws a direct statement that if Taiwan moves directly toward independence its military is authorized to use force. Also, China has moved more aggressively to assert its claims in the South China Sea:

Indonesia warned on Sunday that maritime conflicts in Asia could spiral out of control and threaten regional stability, as Southeast Asian nations sought common ground on the disputed South China Sea.

Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and China have disputed control of areas such as the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, potentially home to oil reserves and near key shipping lanes. Vietnam has had skirmishes with China over the issue.

Southeast Asia seeks common ground on sea disputes with China | World | Reuters

Wars have been fought for less, like desolate, rocky islands noted more for their sheep population than anything else.
 
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