back to article Adobe axes R&D lab in China, insiders blame mandarins and pirates

Adobe is closing the doors of its research and development facility in China – and some within the biz are reportedly blaming the recalcitrant attitude of the Chinese government for the move. "The overall climate in China against Western enterprises has been quite negative and that's one of the major reasons," the anonymous …

  1. Mark 85

    Given the political situation...

    But with China poised to become the world's largest economy, Adobe's move may do more harm to the company than good,

    This may actually be a smart move If they can't do business there due to the increasingly restrictive environment, why put an R&D facility there. Piracy is rampant and so you folks walking out the door with code in their pockets. Hand over the code to local (Chinese) player and the copyright/patent in China is theirs, not Adobe's. All things considered, I don't blame Adobe one bit for this move.

  2. Notas Badoff

    Watch this space

    Does it benefit Chinese companies to have Western companies competing within China? Answer that with a view towards the medium-term - 10 to 25 years - with Chinese companies now still growing their capabilities. Now watch their actions in the next few years with that in mind. You can not be surprised.

    CPC: We put the shove into chauvinism!

    chauvinism noun

    1. aggressive or fanatical patriotism; jingoism

    2. enthusiastic devotion to a cause

    3. smug irrational belief in the superiority of one's own race, party, sex, etc: male chauvinism

    1. Fazal Majid

      Re: Watch this space

      Technically, it's mercantilism, not chauvinism (although the two are closely related).

      Every major economy did it: the UK against the Netherlands in the 17th century, the US against Britain in the 19th (this was one of the drivers for the Civil War, the North wanted mercantilist policies, whereas the commodities-driven export economy of the South was against), Germany in the 19th as well, Japan after WWII. It's only after mercantilism has succeeded that the countries who used it successfully to wrest economic leadership suddenly turn into ardent free-marketers urging emerging powers not do do the same.

      That said, China is close to the shifting point - Huawei's R&D budget and yearly patents are among the highest in its industry, for example, and they have other world-leading companies like Haier.

      1. Ossi

        Re: Watch this space

        Actually, mercantalism ended because everyone realised that it doesn't work. It was founded on the belief that trade was a zero-sum game: in order for me to win, someone else has to lose because there's a fixed amount of trade to go round. A little thought experiment will tell you that this is nonsense. If one country grabbing more of world trade makes it richer then one city grabbing all that (fixed amount of) trade should make that city very rich. Then one street in the city grabs all that trade and because fabulously rich. Then one house in that street etc.

        It's not a zero-sum game. 2 people trading makes both of them better off - that's why we do it. Mercantalism is not a stage in a country's development. It's always a bad idea.

  3. F111F
    Holmes

    Rampant Piracy in China

    My brother's software company was doing business in China, only to find on a visit to the lab that a locked backdoor was actually the entrance to the pirating lab that was industriously copying their work every day...

  4. tempemeaty

    China, the short lived adventure

    IMHO, it wont be long before most major western business can no longer rely on China as a new market to make new business gains in. They will instead have to make it back on home turf where they came from in the west.

    This also means western corporations will have to go to war with the banksters manipulating western economies into the dumpster. It's now about corporate survival and you can't do that in stagnant or declining economies.

    China has mandated it's own government offices and all organizations in their country use only Chinese resources only for decades. The writing has been on the wall. China never wanted businesses from the west in their country. China only entertained the west long enough to learn the engineering China needed from them. How western CEOs could be so short sited to willfully blind to this is beyond me. Now they will have to make it in western markets alone or go into the sunset.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: China, the short lived adventure

      They have absolutely caught up with scientific and engineering expertise and control almost all the manufacturing of electronic componets.

      You're right, how could our governments have let this happen?

      I call GREED :)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        Re: China, the short lived adventure

        You're right, how could our governments have let this happen?

        Actually don't blame the governments for this, blame the consumers. We wanted "better", cheaper, faster, so that's we got.

        Companies are only driven by demand, sure they may try to steer the demand, but ultimately, the consumer decides what they do. if every single Apple owner, for example said " We will not buy any Apple products until every component is made outside China" trust me, there would be new factories popping up everywhere.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: China, the short lived adventure

      "How western CEOs could be so short sited to willfully blind to this is beyond me."

      Because they were as (intentionally) short-termist in that respect as they are in others, knowing that, as with fall out from gutting the company and outsourcing most of the Western staff, they'll have enjoyed the short-term boost to the stock price, subsequent bonuses et al and be long gone before the sh*t hits the fan.

      In other words, typical parasitic "leadership" of large Western companies allowed to get away with it because they're giving the equally short-termist, quarterly-focused markets the unsustainable short-term increases in share price they're looking for.

      China has been playing the long game by allowing themselves to be used as an incredibly cheap manufacturing base for Western companies, building up their own infrastructure, skills, technological knowledge and OEM companies. Now they're at the point where those same OEMs that greed-blinded Western companies casually allowed access to their valued secrets and came to be reliant upon are large enough to start competing in their own right, cutting the now-hollow Euro and Yank "manufacturers" out of the loop.

      But the ex-CEO has a nice fat bonus and a few more yachts for his retirement, so it's all okay.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: China, the short lived adventure

      The writing has been on the wall.

      No wonder that was missed - I bet it was in Chinese..

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Leave NOW and invest in your own country....

    China is growing at the expense of good jobs in your own country. Leave China now so there is still time to invest in the same money for manufacturing technology in a country that is more friendly to Western companies. China will soon be headed towards higher wages & benefits that equalize any cost differences.

    Several years ago, I knew of an entrepreneur making oxygen generators in the USA who had the bright idea to take his business to China. The long and short of it was the Chinese contract manufacturer copied his products and undersold him. Others have suffered the same or worse.

    While no place is immune to IP theft, the further your manufacturing is from direct control and inspection, the more likely it will happen.

  6. akeane

    Mandarins???

    Orange ya glad you don't work for Adobe...

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