You’re absolutely right about that, but it’s not only about companies that want to enjoy lower wages in China and then get their technology stolen. It’s also about, for instance, operating systems or software that is widely used even by “reputable” companies in China, with no royalties paid or replicated with no remuneration. (The last season of “Silicon Valley” was very accurate in this regard.) Or joint ventures created with the objective of selling goods or services into the Chinese market — not exporting to the U.S. — where the “partner” in China sets up a company doing the exact same thing in parallel, and once having absorbed enough technical knowledge, shuts the original joint venture down. I’ve experienced this first-hand on a small scale, where a company I worked for partnered with a company in China to provide services (in this case executive training) to Chinese corporations. Royalties that were promised contractually on a program that was jointly developed were never paid, because the Chinese partner said they decided not to sell the program. Yet go to the company’s website, and they offer a nearly identical program through a wholly-owned affiliate company to this day.