Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) in a square in front of the National People’s Congress.
Photo: Alexander Miridonov
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Russia and China Dispute Intellectual Property
// but are committed to defend each other against military threats
Yesterday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Beijing for his first official visit to China. During negotiations between Russia’s head of state and China’s President Hu Jintao the counterparts signed a declaration of cooperation in major international issues, and agreed to jointly confront military threats posed by third-party countries. Nevertheless, the key problem – intellectual property defense – remains unresolved in spite of Russia’s longstanding efforts to settle the matter. Suzanna Farizova reports from Beijing.
China’s President Hu Jintao and Dmitry Medvedev met in a square in front of the National People’s Congress, China’s red flags on top of the building streaming in the wind. Smog hovered over Beijing, but the Russian President managed to distinguish a company of Chinese military, who saluted him and sang the anthems of the two countries. The Chinese head of state hardly spoke with Russia’s President, preferring to make gestures, which simply meant “Come here!” or “Let’s stand here!” Dmitry Medvedev appeared calm and confident relying on Hu Jintao.
The rapport, which was quick to develop, could be seen during the bilateral talks as well. The Russian and Chinese parties signed a joint action plan of Russia’s Federal Tourism Agency and China’s State Administration for Tourism, which aims to foster cooperation in tourism. Tehsnabexport Director General Alexey Grigoryev and his opposite number from China’s atom energy company signed an agreement about basic conditions of contracts on providing technical assistance at the fourth stage of building a gas-rotary uranium enrichment plant.
“It’s a long-term contract, which means that Russian enterprises producing centrifuges will be engaged. This is a billion-dollar contract!” Rosatom Head Sergey Kirienko couldn’t help rejoicing.
Russia and China also signed a general agreement on aircraft technology export and import. It was the question to worry the Russian party especially, which intended to thrash out the intellectual property defense issue in the course of the visit. One of the members of the Russian delegation said ahead of the trip, “The Chinese purchase our equipment and machines, our know-how, and then completely disassemble them and produce the same things in their country. It’s impossible to combat it because they have always been pirates and won’t give it up.”
In this connection, the journalists were especially interested in a plane that was assembled in China and was an absolute analogue of Russia’s Sukhoi SU-27. They bothered all the delegation’s members with questions trying to find out how Russia will address the case of a virtual technology theft by the Chinese. Director General of Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company Mikhail Pogosyan cut it short, “We produce planes under license here, which is sure to have an impact on China’s aircraft industry.”
Victor Khristenko, Russian Minister of Industry and Energy was more evasive, “The intellectual property issue is very sensitive. When you cooperate with partners, you should put yourself in their place. Every state wants to purchase items, but technology remains their priority. And it’s not odd that our technology is applied in China. It can be regarded a kind of incentive for us to work harder and make new inventions.”
According to the information of Kommersant, the counterparts touched upon the Russian intellectual property defense issue, but no documents were signed concerning the matter.
When concluding agreements about cooperation in outer space, energy, and aircraft construction, Dmitry Medvedev stated that the visit “has been absolute success.”
“We managed to maintain the continuity of the relations between Russia and China. The border and AMD proliferation issues have been settled completely. We negotiated that this year a new action plan for 2009–2012 will be adopted, which envisages transition to innovation cooperation.”
In his turn, Hu Jintao pointed out that the relations between Russia and China are so good that in case of a military threat of any kind the states will certainly combine their efforts in their struggle against external enemy. Yesterday a declaration of jointly confronting military threats was signed by the Russian and Chinese leaders.
Today Dmitry Medvedev’s visit continues. He will meet with the National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman U Bango, hold talks with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin, and deliver a speech to students at the University of Beijing devoted to friendship of the two states.
Suzanna Farizova
All the Article in Russian as of May 24, 2008
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