Ties That Bind - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

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Ties That Bind
� Modernizing China Telecom’s internal network management system across 23 cities and
provinces in Southern China.
� Linking China Ping An Insurance Co.’s 200,000 agents to the head office and central
database via wireless network, enabling remote policy registration, insurance data and
account access, customer service and premium payment.
� Streamlining paperwork and information flow for tracking and monitoring cases within
Beijing’s three-tier system of 21 judiciary courts.
� Developing a computerized ticket sales and reservations system for the Ministry
of Railways and a passenger system involving 5,000 stations and 2,000 trains
operating daily.
Apple Computer’s history in Greater China dates back to the mid-1980s, having less to do with
direct sales than with Taiwan-made counterfeits of the original Apple IIC personal computer.
Long before introduction of Intel dual-core processors in its new MacBook models, a Taiwanese
knockoff, the Lemon, ran dual Apple and Microsoft DOS operating systems, to evade U.S.
Customs inspectors looking for patent violations by turning on the computers. Apple has vigorously
protected intellectual property and enforced premium pricing on its products worldwide,
leading to slower but nonetheless steady growth in China.
Apple has a network of 12 China resellers; two retail outlets in Hong Kong, with plans for three
larger stores; and an outlet each in Beijing and Taipei. Seven-Eleven stores in Taiwan also sell
iPod minis. Three Taiwan original equipment manufacturers—ASUSTeK, Quanta Computer
Inc. and Foxconn Technology Group—manufacture Apple MacBook and desktop models.
Foxconn’s Longhua factory near Shenzhen and ASUSTeK’s Suzhou plant near Shanghai have
made most of the 50 million iPOD MP3 players that have sold worldwide since 2001, and were
cited in June 2006 press reports of excessive hours and other violations of Apple’s supplier code
of conduct. The Shenzhen government has since ordered unionization of the Longhua facility.
ASUSTeK is making Apple’s new Intel-powered iBooks, using panel displays from Taiwan
manufacturers AU Optronics and Chi Mei, as well as Korean makers.
In May 2004, Apple signed an agreement with Founder Technology Group in Shanghai, China’s
second largest personal computer maker, under which the iTunes digital music jukebox software
is pre-installed on every Founder PC.
Computer-aided design (CAD) software maker Autodesk, headquartered in San Rafael, has its
Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Hong Kong, and greater China representative offices in
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Taipei. While the company has branched out in recent years
to tap new markets such as entertainment and public health—its film pipeline animation, visual
effects and color grading package was used in post-production for the 2005 Chinese feature
Seven Swords, and its MapGuide visual mapping and display software was used to map the
spread of the SARS virus on public information web sites in 2003—about half of its greater
China revenues come from the construction and engineering sector.
Autodesk has combined its Buzzsaw project management suite with Japanese construction and
civil engineering firm Maeda Corporation’s Naoshiya Matabee facilities management service to