[Lessismore]

I don't care if it's China. I don't care if it's Panama or any other nation. Doing this, turning over R&D to a foreign entity, is nothing less than national suicide.

Oh it can be said, and it will no doubt be said right here, that the US is not sending it's R&D to China. But the truth is, the US isn't the operative word here. Corporate entities are the operative words. If R&D can be accomplished cheaper in China, guess where R&D will wind up.

The US model is that we control or will control the world via the IMF, World Bank, CIA, etc. Therefore, the US corporations are free to put their R&D anywhere (except countries on the short black list).

Europe and Japan have no such illusions. European and Japanese companies have been much more cagy about exporting technology. However, as the article points out, the Japanese need to do this to catch up to US companies that are building up R&D capabilities in China.

[DoughtyOne]

I believe that we're being too cute for our own good. Sooner or later this is going to come back to haunt us. We've been in the catbird's seat for so long that we seem to think it's manifest destiny that we remain there. The UN, the EU, Russia, China, the African and the middle-eastern states think differently. Nobody likes a self-confident bully. And to the rest of the world, that's how we come off.

We are but a tiny speck on the face of the planet. One of these days these entities are going to put us in our place. In my opinion we're doing everything we possibly could to make that eventuality a done deal.