A guest post by AAM intern Whitney Stack:

Executives of international companies assisting with China’s massive high-speed rail project say that they were forced to transfer their technology in order to gain access to the Chinese market, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Journal reporter Shai Oster writes that “Foreig Executives of international companies assisting with China’s massive high-speed rail project say that they were forced to transfer their technology in order to gain access to the Chinese market, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Journal reporter Shai Oster writes that “Foreign executives and analysts have raised particular concerns about the technology transfers because they fear the transfers could help Chinese rivals develop as competitors.” China’s Ministry of Railways conducted a rare press conference to deny the executives’ claims, but this is yet another case in which manufacturers have said China demanded they give up proprietary information in order to get contracts. The Chinese government plans to invest $295 billion by 2020 in a project to build a high-speed rail network that will connect the country’s major cities. He Huawu, chief engineer at the Ministry of Railways, acknowledged at the news conference that China's trains are based on foreign technology, but he claimed they had been greatly modified by Chinese engineers. He said the technology transfer was not forced. Peter Navarro, author of the book, “The Coming China Wars,” wrote about the methods China uses to force technology transfer in the book, “Manufacturing a Better Future for America,” which was published with the assistance of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). “One of the most potent weapons China has used to move up the value chain is forced technology transfer,” Navarro writes in the chapter, “Benchmarking Foreign Advantages.” “It is only through the acquisition (rather than internal development) of sophisticated technologies that Chinese companies have been able to rapidly enter and expand in sophisticated industries such as automobiles, aircraft, pharmaceuticals and other high-tech areas.” For example, Navarro writes, “China has very effectively used import licensing restrictions as a ‘bargaining chip’ to affect technology transfer from companies like General Motors and Ford when they are setting up production facilities in China with the intention of selling into the Chinese market.”