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A Fair Assessment of China’s IP Protection

For years, US policymakers have described China as a lawless Wild West where foreign intellectual property is stolen with abandon. But if that were true, Western firms would stop basing their operations in China, and Chinese annual payments to foreign IP holders (relative to GDP) would not exceed the international average year after year.

NEW YORK – As 2020 approaches, US tariffs on Chinese goods have reached levels not seen since the US Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which played a key role in exacerbating the Great Depression. A key complaint of US President Donald Trump is China’s failure to respect intellectual-property rights. Trump and his trade advisers regularly accuse China of stealing US inventions, designs, and other forms of IP without compensation, and many in the media repeat these allegations as a matter of course.

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