Editor's note: Some in the United States have been hyping up China's so-called forced technology transfer to tarnish China's image, but the international community and some in the U.S., its business circle in particular, have cast doubts over such accusations. Zhong Sheng, a columnist for People's Daily, comments:
The Chinese government made clear in the protocol of its accession to the World Trade Organization that technology transfer would not be a condition for the approval of foreign investment.
Technological cooperation between foreign and Chinese enterprises in accordance with market principles and legally binding agreements on the basis of equal consultation are a mutually beneficial and win-win choice among market players. The normal negotiation requirements put forward by an enterprise belong to its bargaining right and should be protected. If the foreign party suspects the Chinese partner of abusing its dominant market position, it can pursue litigation in line with international rules.
Input and output are the cause and effect of relations. Technological innovation and dissemination are the driving force of productivity development. It is a conventional model for multinational companies to effectively recover innovation costs and open the market by transferring some technologies to others, so as to provide follow-up support for new technology research and development. What's more, facing fierce market competition, how can an enterprise expand its market share and acquire profits to ensure its survival without coming up with advanced technologies?
China, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, welcomes foreign enterprises to come to invest and do business, and will never set a threshold for technology transfer. Scientific research cooperation and technology transfer between foreign and Chinese enterprises are driven by market rules and interests, and aim at occupying a larger market and generating more profits. On the contrary, it is the U.S. that tries to block Chinese investment in U.S. technology companies, restrict high-tech exports to China, and uses state power to crack down on China's private high-tech enterprises without any reason.
