China's intellectual property rights policies: A strategic view

A widely held view is that China can somehow "steal" its way into prosperity and thus it is in the Chinese government's best interest to keep IP protection weak. Absent from this view is firms' strategic decisions regarding innovation, imitation, and knowledge transfer, decisions that are beyond state control. Therefore, a party that builds its legitimacy on economic growth will have to balance the benefit of strong rule of law in stimulating innovation with the potential erosion of control, and the result is far from clear. In fact, given the dynamic, interactive nature of technological development, IP policies in most countries have been, and will continue to be, the result of a delicate balance among various stakeholders. China is no exception.