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Technocrats’ creative ways of obtaining patents indicate latest form of corruption
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CHINESE bureaucrats are sometimes referred to in Western press as dull technocrats. Indeed, some of them appear exceptionally worthy of the term because they churn out “high-tech inventions” at a speed that would even eclipse Thomas Edison.
Wu Changshun, ex-police chief of Tianjin Municipality in northern China, is one typical example. He is being investigated for “serious disciplinary violations.” What is notable about Wu’s fall from grace is not the amount of money he took in bribes or lurid tales of sexual escapades with mistresses that often accompany the downfall of disgraced officials. Rather, it is the media revelation that he holds 35 patents.
It strikes us that someone in charge of policing a sprawling city as large as Tianjin would still have the time and energy for frequent exercises in creativity. But his “smart” inventions were ridiculed by critics, who said they were more or less copycats of existing products or ideas. Take the ramming-resistant traffic barricade. It is a hard plastic cylinder reinforced to cushion car crashes. Despite controversy that it looked no different from those already widely available, it was awarded a patent anyway.
Another invention that did Wu proud was a “special” traffic light, installed at 731 crossroads in Tianjin. Again, it’s odd that a police chief would need to preoccupy himself with the design of traffic lights, a matter that could well be left to experts. But however banal Wu’s creative mind actually is, it was eagerly applauded by subordinates who needed every chance to curry favor with their superior.
And what better way to do this than official recognition and mass production of Wu’s inventions? Although patent holders in China are legally entitled to a maximum 5 percent of the benefits accruing from patents, this percentage would amount to a tremendous windfall given the possible enormous profits.
Inscrutable inventions
Contrary to popular wisdom, Wu became more innovative as he grew older. Many of his inventions came along after he was 50. And he exhibited the uncanny ability to transcend disciplines, with such inscrutable inventions as a “carbon nanomaterial electrochemical motion sensor.” The irony was compounded by a background check revealing that during his previous 33 years as a traffic police officer, he had only two patents. But a burst of creativity began after he was appointed municipal police chief in 2003. Since then he came up with 33 patents.
Most of the patents, largely related to traffic police facilities and equipment, came about after he stayed away from the drudgery of a front-line traffic police officer. We can only speculate whether this is a result of more spare time or his title as police chief, which obviously increased the odds of obtaining patents.
Wheeling and dealing
As the Beijing Youth Daily opined, Wu’s downfall suggests that corruption in China is taking on more subtle forms, making it harder to detect.
Rampant bribe offering and taking may have been replaced, in some areas, by insidious wheeling and dealing that appear totally legitimate.
Wu’s enthusiasm for patent ownership is perhaps dwarfed only by his former peer Wang Lijun, ex-police boss of Chongqing Municipality.
Wang made headlines in 2012 by fleeing to the US Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, from what he said was persecution by his superior, Bo Xilai, a disgraced senior politician.
Previous media reports said Wang owned 150 patents, but the figure was later found to be an underestimate. Apart from the 150 patents he held under the capacity of Chongqing’s police chief, there were also another 104 patents obtained in the name of Chongqing’s police academy.
The sheer number of patents wasn’t the most jaw-dropping fact. Even more amazing was that 211 of them were acquired in the space of a year. With such efficiency and industry, it’s no wonder that Wang needed “vacation-style therapy,” a euphemism for his ouster after he fell out with Bo.
His inventions proved no less capable of insulting people’s intelligence. For instance, he was awarded a patent for cutting out holes under the armpit of police uniform, supposedly for better ventilation in summer heat. A majority of Wang’s inventions were later developed into standard police gear in Chongqing.
Back in 2005, Yang Jinqi, a top judge sitting on the Supreme People’s Court’s intellectual property court, told reporters that “our ‘problematic’ and ‘rubbish’ patents account for 80 percent of all authorized patents.” Times have changed, but it seems that the criteria on which patents are approved and issued remain lax, leaving ample room for the likes of Wu and Wang to exploit the loopholes.
The media and official graft busters should now zero in on the extent to which Wu profited from his impassioned pursuit of patents, because knowledge about how they turned into a money-spinner is essential to prevention against future corruption of this kind.
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