Report: China’s Emphasis on ‘Indigenous Innovation’ Likely To Escalate Trade Tension With US

A new report due out this week from the US Chamber of Commerce says that China’s continued efforts to boost its domestic technology prowess at the expense of US technology companies will trigger “contentious trade disputes and inflamed political rhetoric on both sides,” according to a Tuesday story in the Wall Street Journal.

All Your Technology Are Belong To Us: US Companies Fear China's Policies Are Aimed at Transferring Foreign Expertise and Protecting Chinese Companies. Photo courtesy of FutureAtlas.com

The US Chamber convened a day long conference on the subject of China and its protectionist intellectual property policies early in July. The report appears to be a follow-up the the conference.

China has long tried to boost its domestic technology market by mandating its own technology standards. But last November, the Chinese government published rules that created a list that could have its them relying only on local products. US companies are worried that they will be shut out of the Chinese market.

The US Chamber’s report is another of a long list of reports and letters issued by business and technology associations around the world that have voiced deep concerns about China’s move last November.

“We are deeply troubled by the actions of the Chinese government in November that would implement an Indigenous Innovation Product Accreditation system,” Software & Information Industry Association President Ken Wasch said in a statement in December. “Implementation of this system will restrict China’s capacity for innovation, impose onerous and discriminatory requirements on companies seeking to sell into the Chinese government procurement market, and contravene multiple commitments of China’s leadership to resist trade and investment protectionism and promote open government procurement policies.”