High-Tech Research Moving From US To China 426
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that American companies like Applied Materials are moving their research facilities and engineers to China as the country develops a high-tech economy that increasingly competes directly with the United States. Applied Materials set up its latest solar research labs in China after estimating that China would be producing two-thirds of the world's solar panels by the end of this year and their chief technology officer, Mark R. Pinto, is the first CTO of a major American tech company to move to China. 'We're obviously not giving up on the US,' says Pinto. 'China needs more electricity. It's as simple as that.' Western companies are also attracted to China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers and the subsidies offered by many Chinese cities and regions, particularly for green energy companies. Applied Materials decided to build their new $250 million research facility in Xi'an after the city government sold them a 75-year land lease at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter of the lab complex's operating costs for five years."
America has something better (Score:5, Funny)
While China is busy developing technology from the last decade, America is has leapfrogged everyone with the social media revolution. We've got things like Twitter, Facebook, Gowalla, 4Square and hundreds of other innovative services which connect people so they can share their stories and do social media stuff like upload their photos and blog right from their email clients! Location-aware twitter cloud blogging! ...ok, we're fucked.
Re:Wait... (Score:4, Funny)
Wait until the Chinese steal your tech and the government keeps quiet about it. You'll soon discover that reimbursements and deep discounts are peanuts.
Hello, China? I'd like a reimbursement on these deeply discounted peanuts. They appear to be made of lead, asbestos, and melamine.
Soggy engineers (Score:1, Funny)
China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers
Okay, so we didn't manage to clear them all out of the three gorges area before flooding it. Everyone makes mistakes.
Re:Or a clever intel operation? (Score:1, Funny)
been there, done that, all I got was this leaky router.
Re:Good job (Score:5, Funny)
"Deep discount" on research and development from the Chinese government? Big deal!
Didn't the US just drop $750 Billion into banking. I bet any day now they'll produce some spectacular product that will revitalize the American economy. Wait for it, wait for it...
Re:Good job: Buying your future (Score:3, Funny)
Those are some mighty big "exceptions" when measured by their impact on our lives.
If you're talking about coming up with new brands of anti-perspirant deodorants with "time-capsule release" and "48-hour wetness protection" and "non-staining" then you can't beat big corporate R&D. I use this example because I happened to be in a Target Store today and was impressed with the incredible variety and the number of times I saw the word "IMPROVED" on the labels. There was "dry" and "gel" and "solid" and "spray" and "liquid" and even "crystal" and my favorite (no-joke) "INVISIBLE". The deodorants alone took up an entire aisle, taller than me and the length of two automobiles. We may not be able to afford health care for everyone, but motherfucker, we are protected against odor and wetness!
This is why our system is clearly the envy of the world.
Re:Western and Eastern educations are not equivale (Score:2, Funny)
I love the way you copy/pasted the name and still got it wrong.