This time, it’s the People’s Republic of China’s decision to block Softbank‘s acquisition of the robotics unit of ABB. As the news writers correctly noted,

By barring the SoftBank deal, Beijing is sending a message that it doesn’t want the expertise and technology ABB has developed in China to help its rivals—especially one based in US ally Japan, which has been in a diplomatic war of words with China over Taiwan.

The PRC has no trouble stealing non-PRC business’ intellectual property, but it objects to intellectual know-how developed by a non-PRC business while it was operating inside that nation being repatriated and used or licensed elsewhere. This is, at best, cynically disingenuous. This is the nation pushing anti-trust excuses for blocking deals moving hard to maintain its own monopoly, here over robotics.

Just as I suggested in a nearby post about another example of PRC disingenuous obstructionism, Softbank and ABB should do the deal, regardless of the PRC’s position, and simply stop doing business with any business domiciled in the PRC and stop doing any other business within the PRC. That would render the PRC’s intransigence wholly irrelevant, it would strongly benefit the two companies’ shareholders and customers, and their example would encourage others to take similar steps.