US Government May Not Approve Sale of IBM PC Unit 358
andy1307 writes "Xinhua, among others, quotes a Bloomberg report saying the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, or CFIUS, might block the sale of IBM's PC unit to Lenovo over national security concerns. CFIUS is made up of 11 U.S. agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and is chaired by the Treasury Department. They are concerned Lenovo employees might be used to conduct industrial espionage. The Bloomberg story said members of CFIUS were focusing their attention on an IBM facility in North Carolina of the United States. The same article says IBM hasn't produced its own PCs for several years and that the bulk of its production is done by manufacturing partners, largely in China. In the past, CFIUS has blocked the sale of Global crossing to Hutchison Whampoa because it would have meant Chinese control of the undersea cable communication network."
Business ought to be left alone (Score:3, Interesting)
The Chinese are not the Red Menace they are made out to be. If anything, they are about as far from Red as you can get. More a yellowish-tan... But they are capitalists through and through.
It's funny, the land of freedom and capitalism is taking steps that would make a communist plutocracy proud.
The facility in North Carolina is really strange (Score:1, Interesting)
"Might" be the US gov at work ... (Score:1, Interesting)
First of all the : " unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" Might be wrong and just trying to stir some trouble. Lets wait until the "final" decision shall we
Secondly The US government need its INTEL upgraded , serioulsy , every computer parts ever made this days have some components made in China. ( welcome to the reality )
They already make the IBM computer there
The US actually today make no ( as in zilch , zero , nada ) computer part whatso ever on its own
All there going to end up doing is look like fool for no obvious reason and going to hurt one of there own company and maybee bring them into bankrupty
And could even close the enormous Chinese market to all the others from the US
When did this happen? (Score:5, Interesting)
Then WHAT THE HELL is left for them to do when all those jobs are gone except cook meth in their trailers? Or become religious terrorists?
This is like (Score:5, Interesting)
Before you flame me, yes, I am a patriotic American, however, I am not blind to what is happening. America is going down the path of Rome. Just give us more bread and circuses. Football is more important than academics. Money is more important than ethics.
Security concerns over a commodity? (Score:2, Interesting)
Where in all of that is a national security concern?
Stupid govt. DOH! (Score:1, Interesting)
Sell them* the Panama Canal, no-problemo! Let IBM get a foot in the door in China? For anyone who has bothered to read the details of the deal, IBM will make out like a bandit and USA will be in a better position to spy on the Chinese!
*Surprised it's not being called Wampo-Canal by now.
The part I didn't get (Score:3, Interesting)
Are they worried about Lenovo employees(presumably Chinese) spying on the companies they sell laptops too? for e.g., if a laptop from a defense contractor is sent to a Lenovo facility for servicing, are they afraid the Lenovo employees might get some information they shouldn't be getting? Aren't IBM laptops serviced by third parties anyway? Where exactly is the potential for industrial espionage?
#2? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Business ought to be left alone (Score:3, Interesting)
The moderators must be smoking crack - insightful indeed? Closer to the mark is insanly paranoid and raving mad about a insubstantial red menace... Oh, your from the USA, I guess that's been drilled into you from birth so you can be excused a little. Fortunatley many Americans are able to draw their own conclusions rather than spouting the nonesense they've been force fed - take a look some of them post on slashdot.
When the USA instigates illegal foreign wars of occupation isn't it YOUR govenrment that needs to be slapped down?
Human rights? So the USA has such a good history of this, signed up to the Geneva convention - oh, what's that it's not - and infact in contravention of it in practice in many places - Guantanimo is an illegal ethical and moral disgrace for example, let alone what's been going on in Abu Grade and other places where it seems there is/was an institutionalised systematic policy of abuse.
How about this for a chiller - the USA tops the world for child prostitution. Yup, nice wholesome christians that you are, is Bush going to try and impose those values on the rest of the world too - along with his current agenda of promoting short term greed over protecting the environment for future generations?
Why is it also that the USA effectivley has more votes in institutions like the WTO and the IMF than everyone else put together. Is it right that the richest people in the world get to dictate global finances, which they always do in their favour. I thought the WTO and IMF were there to help developing nations, not as a way for the USA/G8 to rip them off. This is an example of that - "You must accept our free market conditions on your own economies, but we'll do whatever we like".
The reason that the dollar is spiraling downward has nothing to do with the rest of the world or China (which infact is still helping to prop up the dollar through trade - probably why they've got MFN, you can trade with them and profit lots from the cheapness of those human rights abuses), the fault lies entirley with the USA administration. It's the one that's running your economy down the toilet, but then Bush's out of office in another 4 years so he's squeezing for every last drop he and his friends can make. Perhaps you should sort out your trade deficit and borrowning so you wouldn't have to foist debt off onto developing nations by selling them your currency.
The other reasons the dollar is dying is simple, there is now a sensible alternative, the Euro and so people have a choice - good it's a free market
The USA isn't well liked in the world because of it's terrible foreign policies and as the USA has used the dollar as a way to impose unfair trading and debts on other countries is it any wonder that places are now sending them back and saying no thanks, we'll give the Euro a go. Isn't that what Iraq did shortly before being invaded. Other places that did that - Iran and North Korea - where is top of the impending invasion list? So what do you have to do to be a member of the axis of evil? That's also why the USA administration hates the French so much - it's been mostly their diplomacy that affected these changes to monatary policy.
I could go on and on and on but you get the picture - wake up, stop looking at the world thru Bush tinted goggles and take an objective view and I think you'd be suprised at what is really going on in the world.
Make no mistake, the Stars and Stripes meanace is alive and well today and something needs to be done ASAP.
I can turn $13b into $16b easy!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
But what else is IBM going to do with $13b? Make an OLED factory? they already have access to large amounts of cash, its not like they CANT FIND $13b, they can.
I read the statements and... (Score:2, Interesting)
A) Talks about China censorship in relation to Google
B) Doesn't think that the government may have another reason besides the obvious clap-trap for blocking the sale
With everything going on in the news, does anyone believe they would block the sale of IBM over something as trivial as industrial espionage? Many of you have pointed out the plethora of other companies that are based overseas, but yet fail to see that something else maybe behind the "rumored" blocked sale of IBM to Lenovo. Take of the blinders and take a look around.
Re:Business ought to be left alone (Score:2, Interesting)
Try selling that line of cow huey to the Nepalese,
the Tibetans, or the Taiwanese (, or before that,
to the Vietnamese, or before that to the Indians).
Today's PRC does maintain a low profile when it
comes to international aggression, if only to
placate and numb people like you. The Maoist
"insurrection" in Nepal has been attributed to
"home-grown rebels" in most of the press, because
the interests of the multi-national corporations
are at risk. The PRC does make use of proxies
in their international aggression -- North Korea
comes to mind. Their underlying foreign policy
would appear to be "create turmoil and upset
the balance of power, because out of this strife
comes new opportunities". Nuclear and missile
technology proliferation has done wonders for
their interests in South Asia and the Middle East.
When the USA abruptly cancelled the creation of
a PRC/HK-owned seaport in Long Branch, CA, one
angry PRC general stood before the Politburo
and threatened to nuke Los Angeles. Of course,
this didn't make it into most of the world's
news channels because of overriding financial
interests (trade and emerging markets).
I would recommend that you do a bit more back-
ground reading on the PRC and what shennanigans
they have been up to before making too many
quick judgement calls. Try investigating, for
example, the seaports that PRC/HK have built
to control the Panama Canal. There is power
in knowledge, and the PRC is not just a big
fluffy panda
Re:Business ought to be left alone (Score:3, Interesting)
The point of my post is that every time *anyone* (even some random Joe on slashdot) criticizes China as dangerous someone rushes in and says "the US is more dangerous". I'm saying that the tactic is misleading, the point irrelevant. The "morality" of the US has *nothing* to do with the "morality" of China.
Re:Business ought to be left alone (Score:5, Interesting)
You are one of those two shotgun toting psychopaths. You've already shot at least one person to prove a point (but nobody liked that guy anyway) and your colleague has done likewise a few times as well. People in the room are very worried about you.
Do you:
a) Become repentant of your sins and mend your ways and then tell the other psycho to do likewise?
b) Blow the guy's head off, before he shoots you or somebody you like?
c) Talk to him quietly while waving your gun around to stop other people in the room getting ideas? I mean, if the two of you team up you could eat all the other people in the room and not go hungry, right? Yeah, let's eat them.
I know that this view of the world is really screwed up, but if you look at world events, I think that this is the world that our leaders see.
Re:Hidden Agenda ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Currency Speculation (Score:3, Interesting)
And do you know what the effect of that would be on China? It's a complicated subject but one of the reasons China keeps such large currency reserves is so they can protect their currency against speculation. China has something around $500 billion in US currency right now. This large reserve helps them maintain their currency's peg to the dollar. Its more complicated than this, but essentially they are taking dollars out of circulation thus increasing demand for dollars (less supply -> price increases). This makes a dollar "worth" more, relative to the Renminbi, and makes Chinas exported goods more attractive.
Without a large currency reserve, speculators would be tempted to bet on the currency and China could be forced to float their currency which would cause an instant recession, probably worldwide. Think speculators couldn't do this? George Soros [wikipedia.org] became famous for making $1 billion in a single day by betting on the devaluation of the British pound and forcing the Bank of England to float their currency. In fact speculation is how the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis [wikipedia.org] started. The Thai government had a speculation attack on their currency and were forced to float it, resulting in immediate devaluation and a region-wide financial crisis.
It's not that easy for China to just stop buying dollars. The media tends to paint it as a one sided deal but China is just as dependant on the US, if not more so. Without the US buying all those goods, China's economy goes in the toilet.
Re:Business ought to be left alone (Score:3, Interesting)