Tuesday, September 27, 2011

China Stealing Solar Secrets

Then why are American companies moving there (I'll give you one gue$$)?

"Companies face persistent spy threat; Governments back espionage gambits as stakes go higher" by Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff / September 19, 2011

Corporate security analysts say that businesses are under constant threat from highly sophisticated intelligence operations, often sponsored by foreign governments, particularly China’s.

Another threat: unhappy or cash-strapped employees who are looking to peddle company secrets.

Dave Holley, senior managing director in the Boston office of Kroll Inc., a major corporate security company, said businesses are more vulnerable to spies now because they are scrimping on security to save money in a difficult economy....

Corporate espionage has evolved as thieves use digital technology and the Internet. Criminals use malware programs to infect company computers, just as identity thieves do to steal personal information from home machines.

Ira Winkler, author of “Spies Among Us,’’ a book on digital security, said the Chinese government has excelled in developing and deploying such malware.

“China has infiltrated pretty much every major company in the industrial world and is robbing them blind,’’ Winkler said, adding that it is not just China that is a culprit. “You’ve got Russia and Israel, too.’’

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Related: Data theft case may test US, China ties

That makes the front page of my agenda-pushing, Zionist War Daily.  

Also see: The Israeli Spy Ring 

Not on the front page (if it is in there at all).

"Battery maker cuts 30 Mass. jobs; Boston-Power expanding in China with private and government aid" by Erin Ailworth Globe Staff / September 20, 2011

Lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power Inc. plans to cut about 30 jobs in Massachusetts as it expands in China, where the Westborough company is receiving $125 million in private equity and government support to build batteries for electric vehicles.

Under the deal, which Boston-Power officials are scheduled to detail today, the company will employ several hundred workers at a research and development center in Beijing and a manufacturing facility elsewhere in China, according to Christina Lampe-Onnerud, founder and international chairwoman. Boston-Power also will hire a new China-based chief executive and chief financial officer....

Boston-Power is one of dozens of Massachusetts companies with a growing presence in China, according to state officials. Many are attracted by low manufacturing costs.  

This after you were told green jobs were was going to save America -- and they took your tax money, too.

A Boston-Power competitor, A123 Systems in Waltham, has two offices in China.  

See: Not As Easy as One-Two-Three

Evergreen Solar, a Marlborough solar panel maker that recently filed for bankruptcy protection, has a factory in Wuhan, and American Superconductor Corp., which makes advanced technologies for wind turbines and power utilities, has sales, manufacturing, and service staff throughout China. 

Related: Evergreen Defaults 

And isn't American Superconductor the one that had their secrets stolen?

Julian Chang, executive director of the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, said it’s a challenge to prevent US clean-tech companies from being lured to China, mostly because of the large subsidies the Chinese government offers as enticements....  

You taxpayers feeling like suckers yet? 

Also see: US Taxpayers Burned by Solar Stimuloot

Biden's Moment in the Sun

That was a damn expensive photo op!

The $125 million in funding being used to woo Boston-Power comes in large part from GSR Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices in China and California that primarily invests in technology companies looking to expand in China....

That's what they are using pension funds and college endowments for, 'eh?

The deal was also contingent upon Boston-Power boosting its presence in China, a requirement that is not unusual, some industry observers said.

“The Chinese usually make that part of the process,’’ said Natixis Global Asset Management chief executive John T. Hailer, who oversees the Boston investment company’s business in the United States and Asia. “The Chinese [also] usually make you share technology.’’

Accused here they are accused of stealing it.

Lampe-Onnerud, who started Boston-Power in 2005, said the decision to expand in China was not an easy one, especially since she once hoped to increase the company’s manufacturing presence here in Massachusetts. But two years ago, her firm lost out on $100 million in federal stimulus money it had planned to use to build a 450,000-square-foot battery plant in Auburn.

“We had thousands of people rolled up in that plan,’’ Lampe-Onnerud said. “The day we were informed we did not get [that stimulus money], we were back on the China track.’’

Now, Boston-Power will shrink its Westborough staff by about 35 percent.

The job cuts could begin as early as this week, Lampe-Onnerud said.  

But the Massachusetts economy keeps adding jobs every month says the Globe.

Hailer said that if the United States hopes to stem the number of jobs being lost to China or other countries with low-cost manufacturing, tax policies need to be fixed so that companies don’t have as many incentives to create jobs abroad.  

EXCUSE ME? U.S. TAX POLICY gives INCENTIVES to CREATE JOBS ABROAD? 

Well, WHOSE WONDERFUL IDEA was THAT?

He also said immigration and education policies need to be revamped so that foreign students educated here have an easier time finding work after they graduate.

And American kids? 

Oh, right, military for them.

“Before we start blaming the Chinese for all our problems and for the companies leaving, we need to look at ourselves,’’ Hailer said.  

I agree.

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Also see: Boston Battery-Maker Drained

So am I when it comes to charging into my Globe. 


Related: GM, China, Boston Globe

US files complaint against Chinese chicken tariffs