Chinese Reject Reports Linking it to Leaking of Renault Secrets

This story should come as no surprise. The Chinese are known for stealing technology, or are accused of doing so. excerpt: China rejected media reports linking its companies to a suspected leak of Renault SA electric-car secrets that led to the suspension of three senior executives by the French automaker. “The accusations are baseless and irresponsible, and the Chinese side cannot accept them,” Hong Lei, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, told reporters in Beijing today. The Chinese government commented following French newspaper reports over the past week that said investigations pointed to Chinese involvement. Le Figaro said today that Renault had uncovered payments by China State Grid Corp., the state-owned power distributor, into accounts held by two of the executives in Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Caroline De Gezelle, a spokeswoman for Renault, declined to comment on the report. Lu Jian, a Beijing-based spokesman for China State Grid, did not answer calls to his office. Renault has fallen victim to an “organized, international ring” that passed on vehicle designs and commercial data, Chief Operating Officer Patrick Pelata said in an interview published Jan. 9 in Le Monde and confirmed by the company. Battery technologies “appear” to be safe, he said. Renault, based in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, and Japanese partner Nissan Motor Co. have invested a combined 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) to develop and manufacture electric vehicles and power packs. NEC, LG Chem Nissan produces lithium-ion cells in a venture with NEC Corp. for the Leaf electric car and models planned by its French alliance partner. LG Chem Ltd., a South Korea-based unit of LG Group, has a contract to supply Renault with batteries in excess of the alliance’s manufacturing capacity.Nissan and LG are checking whether any of their technology was compromised by the Renault leaks, the companies said Jan. 8. Renault has said its next step will be to interview the three suspended executives prior to the possible termination of their employment. The meetings may take place today, Les Echos reported, citing union sources. The highest-ranking of the accused Renault managers is Michel Balthazard, a vice president for long-term product development who is on the 27-member management committee chaired by Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn, two people with knowledge of the matter said Jan. 5. Accused Await Explanation Another suspended executive, Matthieu Tenenbaum, previously worked at Nissan before overseeing development of four battery- powered Renault models as deputy head of its electric-vehicle program. Tenenbaum has received no explanation for his suspension, his lawyer Thibault de Montbrial said in a telephone interview.“He can’t defend himself because he doesn’t even know what he’s accused of,” Montbrial said. “He obviously denies being a Chinese spy. The accusation would be ridiculous if it weren’t so serious.” While the French carmaker has never confirmed the identity of the three executives, legal director Christian Husson said Jan. 6 they had “knowingly and deliberately endangered the company’s assets.”

China and Religion

From The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) (written over 100 years ago) CHAPTER III–RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION The Chinese are emphatically not a religious people, though they are very superstitious. Belief in a God has come down from the remotest ages, but the old simple creed has been so overlaid by Buddhism as not to be discernible at the present day. Buddhism is now the dominant religion of China. It is closely bound up with the lives of the people, and is a never-failing refuge in sickness or worldly trouble.

China’s Ruling Communist Party and Corruption

From Here is what a communist party official in China said about how corruption makes the communist party stable in China The Party Secret World of China’s Communist Party Richard Mcgregor Can we allow the era of opening and reform to remove us from power and replace us with the capitalist classes? That absolutely won’t work. We can’t push the anti-corruption campaign indefinitely. For who else can the regime depend on for support but the great masses of middlelevel cadres? If they are not given some advantages, why should they dedicate themselves to the regime? They give their unwavering support to the regime because they get benefits from the system. Corruption makes our political system more stable. How can Chinese officials compare with Hong Kong officials? Can they compare with Taiwan officials? Or with officials in developed countries? The salaries of public officials in foreign countries are dozens or even more than a hundred times higher than the salaries of Chinese officials. Moreover, a long anti-corruption campaign would expose the dark side of the Communist Party. If many of these things were to be exposed, the masses would lose their faith in the Chinese Communist Party. Who could accept the historic responsibility for doing this?

China an Executions

China executes more prisoners than the rest of the world combined. Photos from here State-sanctioned public executions. A condemned man is paraded before thousands who turn up to watch as he and a dozen others are executed with a bullet to the head. Young women executed and very likely their organs will be harvested and their bodies used in cosmetic production

Acnient Chinese Torture Methods

Methods of torture in China from the 1900’s The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) Two actual instruments of torture are mentioned, one for compressing the ankle-bones, and the other for squeezing the fingers, to be used if necessary to extort a confession in charges of robbery and homicide, confession being regarded as essential to the completion of the record. ==========

Endemic Corruption in China

Is this why bribery is endemic in China? The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) Neither do any officials in China, high or low, receive salaries, although absurdly inadequate sums are allocated by the Government for that purpose, for which it is considered prudent not to apply. The Chinese system is to some extent the reverse of our own. Our officials collect money and pay it into the Treasury, from which source fixed sums are returned to them as salaries. In China, the occupants of petty posts collect revenue in various ways, as taxes or fees, pay themselves as much as they dare, and hand up the balance to a superior officer, who in turn pays himself in the same sense, and again hands up the balance to his superior officer. When the viceroy of a province is reached, he too keeps what he dares, sending up to the Imperial exchequer in Peking just enough to satisfy the powers above him. There is thus a continual check by the higher grade upon the lower, but no check on such extortion as might be practised upon the tax-payer.

China and Cruelty

This is a quote from a book written in 1890. The author is talking about Chinese punishment. The funny thing is that they have replaced the punishments below for those found here.The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) Still farther back in Chinese history, we come upon punishments of ruthless cruelty, such as might be expected to prevail in times of lesser culture and refinement. Two thousand years ago, the Five Punishments were–branding on the forehead, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, mutilation, and death; for the past two hundred and fifty years, these have been–beating with the light bamboo, beating with the heavy bamboo, transportation for a certain period, banishment to a certain distance, and death, ==========

China Preventing Hong Kong from Enforcing UN Embargo On Tran

On China’s Regulatory Problems

Economic Warlords.doc (Julie Cochran) under the supervision of SEPA.”227 Unlike its American counterpart, which boasts 17,000 full-time employees, SEPA staffs a scant 300 personnel.228 Furthermore, the EPBs are funded by the same local governments that turn a blind eye to counterfeiting.229 Professor Srini Sitaraman clearly articulates the problem: This dual supervision has produced a dilemma of governance because local governments control the budget, personnel decisions, promotions, and the allocation of resources such as automobiles, housing, and office space. Local EPB officials are heavily dependent on provincial, city, and county governments because career advancement and budgetary decisions are made by the local governments.230 Thus, the advancement of local interests—cultivated by decentralization and de facto federalism—depends entirely on the tax revenue generated by local polluters. Any local government that chooses to elevate environmental consciousness over economic growth suffers doubly, as “construction is prevented or delayed on factories that might bring it income while poisoning the local air and water, and the local government not only loses the tax revenue the

Civilization of China

The Civilization of China (Herbert Allen Giles) Also with the Huns, the forbears of the Turks, who once succeeded in shutting up the founder of the dynasty in one of his own cities, from which he only escaped by a stratagem to be related in another connexion. There were in addition wars with Korea, the ultimate conquest of which led to the discovery of Japan,