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Comment by vkou | Hacker News Reader

> I think the big/only difference between us and China in this regard is that the US government don't do this to Chinese companies and then take those secrets and give them to American companies.

How do you know this does not happen in defense-related industries?

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Not OP. Also not saying it doesn't happen, but the incentive structures are different in both countries. A lot of private industry in China is defacto government owned due how business works there - You can't build a business there to scale without having ingratiated yourself to some higher ups of the party at some level. While the same thing may or may not happen in the US, we also have the option of being able to grow obscenely large without being tight knit with the government - See Facebook and a large chunk of Silicon Valley.

It's commonly touted that the purpose of forcing foreign companies to submit their IP to a Chinese owned branch as a prerequisite to conducting business in China is so the government can exfiltrate foreign IP back to China. The government isn't in the business of building out all these industries themselves - they anoint some select chosen in their cabal who profits enormously from getting the blessing of their local party members, while sending generous kickbacks their way. There's some Chinese billionaire who talks about it on YouTube - I can't recall his name off the top of my head.

Assessment of foreign military equipment/tech bought (or stolen) by the US is highly dependent on defense contractors.

There is less of an incentive for the US to steal commercial tech, but that would probably change if "our tech" fell behind "their tech."

In defense related industries, it surely does happen if it can be done. Outside of that, probably only what can be got away with by bad agents for side deals.

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