But isn't this completely fine ? The US became an industrial powerhouse by doing the same. Even barred foreign inventors from obtaining parents in the US. The U.S. Patent Act of 1793 was explicitly structured to favor domestic industrial growth at the expense of foreign inventors. Provided total legal immunity within the U.S. for commercializing pirated ideas. Only when the US became #1, did international protection of its patents became a priority.

China merely followed the American approach towards industrial success.

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firesteelrain 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I don’t think it’s completely fine to steal others technologies and products no. There are ways to be competitive and in an ethical manner

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ahartmetz 2 hours ago | parent [-]

The idea that ideas can be stolen and that doing so is wrong is fairly new and somewhat "unnatural". So the ethics of "stealing ideas" are not entirely well-defined. I think the only thing that almost everyone agrees on is that the person who had an idea first (or at least popularized it) should get recognition for it.

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firesteelrain 41 minutes ago | parent [-]

Huh? Patent systems go back hundreds of years! Yes nobody owns the idea of the lathe. We need to get past that. But for centuries, societies have recognized that someone who spends time and money developing a particular invention or manufacturing process can have legit rights to it

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lenkite 30 minutes ago | parent [-]

Its more: "Do as we say, not as we do". Lots of traditional techniques were appropriated and patented by the West and your nation deliberately ignored patents during its industrialization phase. But when the East that threw off the shackles of colonialism does so, oh my god, it is theft.

"Steal to get ahead, but suppress others who steal after you are ahead"

	▲	firesteelrain 12 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Ok that’s pretty creative to say “America did it 200 years ago” into a permanent license to copy and steal. Hell of a standard