There is no choice. Any product which will be sold in China must have its plans, and a working prototype submitted to the Chinese version of Underwriters Laboratories (UL). They then simply steal the IP, and give it to China Electric Corporation, or China Industrial Corporation, etc, to make it and sell it for half the price as Cisco, HP, Scientific Atlanta, etc. Once the company has racked up $1 billion or so in illegal international sales, they "settle" with the Western company they stole from, which just means that company gets to "partner" with China to sell the products there.
I am hoping one day some company will submit plans which are different from the prototype, and which explodes and leaks radiation when assembled and powered on. That'll learn 'em.
Meanwhile there is a new trend of companies which refuse to do business in China, because they don't want to get ripped off. Here is one of them, Cummins-Allison, who wont even sell their products to Chinese banks for fear of having them reverse-engineered.
Thanks, that was a good read - now there IS a choice to not have your chicken stolen while you're selling eggs.
A good business with china btw is selling them machinery for complex processes with complex software - and earn with the services.
I still don't understand why people still bring their blueprints. If there's no business without or it's chineese business after a short while otherwise - what's the long term win ? Don't do the deal then.