EBay Is Expected to Close Its Auction Site in China (free trade?)

NYTimes ^ | December 19, 2006 | KATIE HAFNER and BRAD STONE

[baseball_fan]

/snip/ The decision was also seen as a sign of the pressure Chinese government regulations put on foreign companies to set up joint ventures, even when they may be reluctant to do so for fear of helping to turn their Chinese partners into global rivals.

/snip/ Duncan Clark, the chairman of BDA China Ltd., a technology and media consulting firm in Beijing, said Chinese regulations requiring domestic control over companies engaged in many kinds of financial transactions had limited the ability of eBay’s payment mechanism.

“The end game is who can control online payment,” he said. “They’ve had their hands tied on that.”

The Chinese authorities are preparing to issue 10 licenses for online payment systems, and eBay will have a much better chance of winning one, Mr. Clark said, if its operations are in a joint venture controlled by a Chinese partner.

[baseball_fan]

“The end game is who can control online payment,” he said. “They’ve had their hands tied on that.”

how long can we afford to give up control before insisting the playing field be level? Did we force the Chinese government to have an American partner where control would remain before allowing Lenovo to buy IBM's PC division? is it fair to assume this is more of expecting the alligator to eat one last?

[FLOutdoorsman]

As per the Chinese Constitution:

"Article 18. The People's Republic of China permits foreign enterprises, other foreign economic organizations and individual foreigners to invest in China and to enter into various forms of economic co-operation with Chinese enterprises and other economic organizations in accordance with the law of the People's Republic of China. All foreign enterprises and other foreign economic organizations in China, as well as joint ventures with Chinese and foreign investment located in China, shall abide by the law of the People's Republic of China. Their lawful rights and interests are protected by the law of the People's Republic of China."

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html

Any country that does business abides by it, and joins the Commies.

[beaver_tail]

"how long can we afford to give up control before insisting the playing field be level? Did we force the Chinese government to have an American partner where control would remain before allowing Lenovo to buy IBM's PC division? is it fair to assume this is more of expecting the alligator to eat one last?"

Only dumb Lenovo would spend this kind of money to buy a money losing business from IBM.

[1rudeboy]

[H]ow long can we afford to give up control before insisting the playing field be level?

Careful. Some of our colleagues might think you are calling for a free trade agreement with China.