This news from an AP article is a couple months old, but I thought I would comment on this “new exchange of technology” to China.
Obviously, this is a multibillion deal for Westinghouse but do they need to give away the farm? Westinghouse technology for their new AP1000 plants should be kept close to the company and treated as intellectual property. It is like selling their patents. The decades of experience designing and maintaining these plants is invaluable in new plant designs and construction.
In the article, Westinghouse’s President Steve Tritch states "We will transfer basically the complete technology to allow the Chinese to eventually become self-sufficient and eventually apply this technology themselves within China." He said the “complete technology” not just some with the key information left out.
So let me get this straight…Westinghouse is bought by Toshiba and friends and then sells its’ intellectual property to China who is known to copy everything, cut costs & quality, and resell it cheap.
Asked whether Westinghouse was concerned that such transfers might help China develop into a competitor in export markets, Tritch said, "not really." He said demand for technology is forecast to be so robust that Westinghouse will have plenty of orders. I interpret “not really” as another way of saying “probably not soon but down the road they probably will”.
Does anyone remember the numerous news accounts of China selling technology to other countries that are not so friendly to the US? Sure, they sold weapons technology to North Korea, Iran, Russia, among others. So why won’t they sell this technology too?
Mistake? History will determine.