Replies to post #16580 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

DuPont...suspected its onetime partner in China was getting hold of its prized chemical technology, and spent more than a year fighting in arbitration trying to make it stop.

Then, 20 investigators from China’s antitrust authority showed up.

For four days this past December, they fanned out through DuPont’s Shanghai offices, demanding passwords to the company’s world-wide research network, say people briefed on the raid. Investigators printed documents, seized computers and intimidated employees, accompanying some to the bathroom.

...In DuPont’s case, the dispute concerned a process to produce supple textile fibers from corn, a $400 million business for the company in 2017. The antitrust investigators...told DuPont to drop the case against its former Chinese partner.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-systematically-pries-technology-from-u-s-companies-1537972066

Yes, this is a form of resource nationalism—hence the thread it appears in.

[DewDiligence]

New tack on China’s IP theft?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-deploys-new-tactics-to-curb-chinas-intellectual-property-theft-1542027624

The Trump administration is broadening its China trade battle beyond tariffs with a plan to use export controls, indictments and other tools to counter the theft of intellectual property, according to people familiar with the matter.

The opening move in the new strategy came in the form of a recent crackdown by the Commerce and Justice Departments on a Chinese state-owned chip maker, which the U.S. administration accused of stealing trade secrets from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc., the people said.

U.S. officials are looking at additional cases where they could use a similar combination of tools to fight Chinese IP theft, the people added. The officials hope that the unprecedented actions taken to defend Micron—the largest American memory-chip maker—will encourage more U.S. companies to work with the government to counter intellectual property theft.

Note: I’m putting this post in the Reply chain of #msg-140391574 because IP theft is essentially a variant of resource nationalism.

[DewDiligence]

Resource Nationalism remains a top concern of mining companies:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/countries-push-to-extract-more-cash-from-big-mining-companies-1542568635

[DewDiligence]

Chinese internet firms are a sucker bet:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/will-china-cheat-american-investors-11544744711

[DewDiligence]

Nickel futures @5-year high on Indonesia embargo:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nickel-prices-soar-as-indonesia-brings-forward-export-ban-11567177511

Nickel prices soared Friday after the Indonesian government said it would ban exports of nickel ore earlier than traders had expected, sparking concerns of shortages in the stainless-steel ingredient… nickel prices have now surged 68% in 2019 and reached their highest level in almost five years.

…Indonesia is aiming to become Asia’s main producer of electric vehicles, many of which are powered by lithium-ion batteries made using nickel.