New York Times
CHINA'S REACH: THE TROUBLE DOWNSTREAM
In Life on the Mekong, China's Dams Dominate
By JANE PERLEZPublished: March 19, 2005
Legal issues spook China investors
By Jonathan Kent BBC correspondent in Kuala Lumpur
http://www.techcentralstation.com/032305I.html
Brazil: A Tough Nut to Crack
By Desmond Lachman 03/23/2005
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Both China and Brazil turn a blind Eye to intellectual property piracy. Desmound states:
Intellectual property piracy has become a major problem for U.S. corporations and jobs. The U.S. Customs Service estimates counterfeiting costs the U.S. more than $200 billion every year and has cost 750,000 U.S. jobs.
Brazil happens to be among the biggest offenders of intellectual property rights. Piracy is particularly rampant there in records and music, business software, motion pictures and the pharmaceutical industry. Brazil recently justified ignoring western companies' AIDS drug patents, claiming they are too expensive, despite the fact that it spends a paltry 2 percent of its massive gross domestic product on health and is the world's 11th-largest economy
Jonathon Kent cites a Shanghai lawyer who is licensed to practice in mainland China:
"No one knows how many laws there are in China," he says, observing that central and regional governments often pass bills that completely contradict one another
A mainland businessman may treat the terms of a contract, already signed, as advisory, not absolute
Jane Perlez criticizes Chinese development destroying downstream economic and environmental system. She cites:
China's ravenous appetite for hydroelectric power at home and its thrust southward into Southeast Asia in search of trade is changing the very character of the Mekong. This is true not only in China itself, but also for the five nations and 60 million rural people downstream for whom the great river serves as their life's blood.
China has completed two dams. It is pushing ahead with three more and has three others on the drawing board. Just about 70 miles away from here, China has blasted reefs and rocks at the border of Laos and Myanmar to clear the way for its trading vessels to reach new markets deep into Laos.
Water levels and temperatures have fluctuated widely, threatening the river environment and disrupting the livelihoods of the fishermen and others who depend on the $2 billion annual catch of migratory fish.
"China seems to be doing this with impunity," said Aviva Imhof, director of Southeast Asia programs at International Rivers Network, a nongovernmental group in Berkeley, Calif. "The Mekong is slowly being strangled to death. Why aren't the downstream governments challenging China's activities?"
The fish catch dropped by almost 50 percent last year, according to the Mekong River Commission. . .The water from the dams is also much colder than the water downstream, affecting the fish, which are extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, Mr. Osborne wrote last year in a paper titled "River at Risk" for the Lowy Institute, a public policy group in Sydney.
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China and Brazil equally defy Environmental. Legal, and Business Practice standards common to the rest of the World, quite often in direct violation of Treaties and Organizational Standards which they agreed to abide by. The rest of the World refuses to insist on conformance, due to fear of loss of Trade advantage. Intellectual Property violations cost Money and Jobs, but Environmental recklessness on their part leads to lasting damage. Their refusal to fulfill Contractual agreements allows them a power to Impound what they desire, overtly or covertly.
Both Nations could match International Standards without much duress, and Environmental hazards could be curtailed without loss of usage. It is time for their International Trading partners to get tough, whether it costs a few Dollars or not. lgl
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