Subservient Tech Execs Try To Claim Lecture From Chinese President Was a 'Dialogue'

Scorecard:

For granting permission to continue to do business, China gets tech companies'  intellectual capital transfer, storage of Chinese-related data in country, agreement to provide access to customer information to Chinese authorities. All despite declining opportunities and market share vis a vis Chinese competitors.

For agreeing to those terms, US tech executives get lecture - and photo opp with Chinese President. JL

Richard Waters and Geoff Dyer report in the Financial Times:

Calling tech leaders to Seattle, along with other chief executives from a wider range of industries for a meeting was seen as a demonstration of the importance to US companies of access to Chinese markets
Silicon Valley sought to put a brave face on its fraying business relations with China on Wednesday, as some of the US tech industry’s top names gathered near Seattle for a lecture from Chinese President Xi Jinping.Tim Cook of Apple, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Ginni Rometty of IBM were among the tech leaders summoned to a meeting with the president on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington.Before he spoke, the executives waited to take photos with Mr Xi, whom Mr Zuckerberg greeted in Mandarin. Facebook is banned within China. The Chinese president told the attendees that countries should set domestic internet policies “in line with their national realities”, although he also underlined the importance of “safe and stable cyberspace”.
A spate of tech alliances was announced to coincide with the presidential visit, though these promised little in the way of greater access to Chinese markets. US tech companies have complained of being shut out as China tries to build its own tech champions, with the situation getting worse in the two years since the Snowden revelations about illicit US internet surveillance.

Calling tech leaders to Seattle, along with other chief executives from a wider range of industries for a meeting earlier in the day, was seen as a demonstration of the importance to US companies of access to Chinese markets. Mr Xi used a speech at a dinner on Tuesday to reassure American corporate leaders on economic and business issues, asserting China’s determination to punish cyber criminals as well as making references to US culture including Sleepless in Seattle, Netflix’s House of Cards and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

“I don’t expect the American companies to be complaining in front of him, actually it will be quite the opposite,” said Scott Kennedy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He added that the Chinese president would be able to use any positive comments from the chief executives in his defence, should President Barack Obama attack China over unfair treatment of American companies at a meeting in Washington on Thursday.
Other China experts say that the mood among US business leaders has hit a new low. “In my 35 years following the US-China relationship and participating in it I have never seen a time where the business community, the private sector component of the relationship, has been more despondent,” Jon Huntsman, former US ambassador to China, said last week.
However, Boeing marked Mr Xi’s visit by announcing orders and commitments from Chinese customers worth $38bn at list prices and plans to set up the company’s first plant outside the US.While tech leaders who met Mr Xi were not expecting to get the chance to air their views ahead of the meeting, a wider group of industry representatives also converged on Seattle for discussions on US-China tech issues.
“No one is running away from the hard issues,” said Dean Garfield, head of the Information Technology Industry Council, a tech trade group, who was at the meetings. He added: “No one is going to solve them here,” but the talks had laid the ground for more constructive discussions in future.
Among the tech alliances unveiled on Wednesday, Microsoft said it would make Baidu the default search engine in its new Windows 10 operating system in China, replacing its in-house Bing service. Baidu dominates internet search in China following Google’s retreat five years ago. Microsoft said it would not pull Bing from China entirely, though its market share there is minuscule, according to independent estimates.
In return, Baidu will promote Windows 10 to its users, joining other Chinese tech companies, part of Microsoft’s latest bid to counter rampant piracy of its software in China.
Other tech alliances announced on Wednesday promised close collaboration in key technology fields, but were short on detail. Cisco, the networking equipment maker that has been among the hardest hit by the Snowden disclosures, said it was taking 49 per cent of a $100m joint venture with Chinese server maker Inspur.
Cisco had announced plans for a similar joint venture with a different company in 2012, but the deal was called off amid the chill that followed the Snowden revelations.
In another partnership, business social networking site LinkedIn and ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi said they would co-operate in artificial intelligence to “improve their user experience and create new market opportunities”.