China's Stolen Software a Trojan Horse

China's growth in manufacturing is in large part due to the theft of technology and licenses. As a result of stolen software installed on the majority of China's computers, it is particularly easy for hackers to get into them....

One persistent problem is that much of the pre-installed software still consists of pirated copies. While China has released statistics showing that the use of legitimate software in China has increased dramatically, the Business Software Alliance, an international software industry group, estimates that 79 percent of the software sold in China in 2009 was illegally copied, creating a loss to the industry of $7.6 billion in revenue. Even more important to Beijing, these statistics mean the vast majority of Chinese computer systems — government and private alike — remain vulnerable to malware.

China and its Double-edged Cyber-sword | STRATFOR December 2010

-Investment Conclusion? Some day just maybe, software companies like Oracle and Microsoft will increase their revenues in China. In the meantime, it is the same thing as before. The Chinese are stealing western technology and neither business or government care to do much about it.