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Economy

Chinese Peril? What The Renault Industrial Spying Case Tells Us About Competition From China

Les Echos editor says China lulls the West into thinking it's always playing catch-up on technology. Reaction to the recent case of alleged Chinese espionage of Renault's electric car design is a case in point.

2010 Beijing Auto Show

PARIS - It is too early for fear, but not too late to begin to be wary. Western industrial chiefs already know that the technology transfers demanded by Chinese authorities in exchange for access to their market could backfire. As French car giant Renault is struggling with a troubling economic espionage case, these business executives now find that their Chinese rivals' methods – if the suspicion turns out to be true – may be even more aggressive than they feared.

Even before getting all the evidence, the first reaction could be to punish China and request sanctions against an immoral rival. The French government and Renault have yet to take this step. If the accusations turn out to be true, it will then be time to seek punishment and compensation.

But in the short term, there are other priorities. Companies are not as naïve as we think they are. They know that they have been actors in an economic war for a while now. The CIA helps out America Inc. and in France small businesses have learned to be wary of the big French companies, often accused of stealing their smaller counterparts' technologies. In business, anything goes and not just with Chinese rivals.

Therefore, the priority for CEOs is to be extremely careful, without resorting to permanent spying on their own employees. If bugs are developing, it's a sign that people are using them. When doing business, you must be wary of the Chinese as much as others.

But it is also high time we got rid of this naïve image of China as a commercial giant, yet technological dwarf. Beijing often tries to make others believe that its factories are just putting together high-tech components made in the US or Japan. The idea that China is the world's factory not its laboratory grows less true by the day. Chinese rockets can send men into space; Chinese high-speed trains are as fast as the French TGVs; their super calculators are faster then those from IBM or Bull. And in the auto industry, China is hoping to become a leader in electric engines to compensate for being behind in gas engines.

Money, manpower, education and a strategic leadership make China more of a giant with agile feet than feet of clay. Without even having to spy on Renault, Beijing is already a fierce rival.

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Geopolitics

How Russia And China Are Trying To Drive France Out Of Africa

Fueled by the Kremlin, anti-French sentiment in Africa has been spreading for years. Meanwhile, China is also increasing its influence on the continent as Africa's focus shifts from west to east.

Photo of a helicopter landing, guided a member of France's ​Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maneuver by members of France's Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maria Oleksa Yeschenko

France is losing influence in its former colonies in Africa. After French President Emmanuel Macron decided last year to withdraw the military from the Sahel and the Central African Republic, a line was drawn under the "old French policy" on the continent. But the decision to withdraw was not solely a Parisian initiative.

October 23-24, 2019, Sochi. Russia holds the first large-scale Russia-Africa summit with the participation of four dozen African heads of state. At the time, French soldiers are still helping Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger fight terrorism as part of Operation Barkhane.

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Few people have heard of the Wagner group. The government of Mali is led by Paris-friendly Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, although the country has already seen several pro-Russian demonstrations. At that time, Moscow was preparing a big return to the African continent, similar to what happened in the 1960s during the Soviet Union.

So what did France miss, and where did it all go wrong?

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