<story><title>I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it</title><url>https://basta.substack.com/p/no-sacred-masterpieces</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ipython</author><text>Best quote: &amp;quot;People working for Didi apply for intern jobs at Uber China and then exfiltrate our data. We can’t let them see the formulas or they’ll just copy what we do!”&lt;p&gt;This is so true. People in the US just don&amp;#x27;t understand the level of economic and industrial espionage that happens in China on a daily basis. I was responding to an unrelated breach at an unnamed tech company back in mid-2000s time frame and had a side bar conversation that went like the following:&lt;p&gt;Them: &amp;quot;Yeah, we just opened a tech center in Xinjiang and ... wow, we&amp;#x27;ve had quite the rash of lost ID badges there recently&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Me: &amp;quot;Have you considered that they&amp;#x27;re not &amp;#x27;lost&amp;#x27;, but rather &amp;#x27;sold&amp;#x27; for profit?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;... silence ...&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know if executives are aware but just don&amp;#x27;t care, or if they&amp;#x27;re simply incompetent, but China has productized industrial espionage on a massive scale. GE Aviation was a victim more recently: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cincinnati.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;accused-chinese-spy-who-targeted-ge-aviation-sentenced-to-20-years&amp;#x2F;69653460007&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cincinnati.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;accused-chi...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>iancmceachern</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve watched this happen.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve watched key, core engineers and technical leaders work for US and European companies, develop their next generation products, then turn around and design and develop essentially the exact same thing for the Chinese market. They then build a company, in China,  that makes essentially the same product, but for the Chinese Market, and with Chinese investors, etc.&lt;p&gt;Examples:
Thoratec&amp;#x2F;Abbot Heartmate III &amp;amp; CH Biomedical&lt;p&gt;Auris&amp;#x2F;Verb&amp;#x2F;J&amp;amp;J Robotic &amp;amp; Digital Solutions &amp;amp; Renovo Surgical&lt;p&gt;The ironic thing, is that some of these companies after success in China are working to sell and be competitive in the US and Europe.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not even secret or under the table anymore, it&amp;#x27;s overt and largely accepted as the way it is in our industry.  A brave new world.&lt;p&gt;The other factor, is that it is very very difficult for a foreign company to do business and protect their assets in China, so often the wise companies don&amp;#x27;t even try.  They often just license their stuff for the Chinese market to a Chinese company.  That way they at least have a chance of not having it all just stolen.</text></comment>
<story><title>I built Excel for Uber and they ditched it</title><url>https://basta.substack.com/p/no-sacred-masterpieces</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ipython</author><text>Best quote: &amp;quot;People working for Didi apply for intern jobs at Uber China and then exfiltrate our data. We can’t let them see the formulas or they’ll just copy what we do!”&lt;p&gt;This is so true. People in the US just don&amp;#x27;t understand the level of economic and industrial espionage that happens in China on a daily basis. I was responding to an unrelated breach at an unnamed tech company back in mid-2000s time frame and had a side bar conversation that went like the following:&lt;p&gt;Them: &amp;quot;Yeah, we just opened a tech center in Xinjiang and ... wow, we&amp;#x27;ve had quite the rash of lost ID badges there recently&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Me: &amp;quot;Have you considered that they&amp;#x27;re not &amp;#x27;lost&amp;#x27;, but rather &amp;#x27;sold&amp;#x27; for profit?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;... silence ...&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t know if executives are aware but just don&amp;#x27;t care, or if they&amp;#x27;re simply incompetent, but China has productized industrial espionage on a massive scale. GE Aviation was a victim more recently: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cincinnati.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;accused-chinese-spy-who-targeted-ge-aviation-sentenced-to-20-years&amp;#x2F;69653460007&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cincinnati.com&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2022&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;accused-chi...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mkii</author><text>And yet, when the author takes code from one company to use for another, or releases company code on Github, nobody bats an eyelid.</text></comment>