Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co (BAIC) said it has always respected intellectual property rights after it was revealed that one of its employees was charged with allegedly stealing trade secrets from US automaker Ford, the Wall Street Journal reported. The employee Yu Xiangdong, also known as Mike Yu, is alleged to have copied 4,000 documents when leaving Ford in 2007, where he was a product engineer. Court papers say he used the documents to try to gain employment with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. There was no indication of whether Yu had tried to sell the documents to BAIC. Technology transfer from the West to China has become a big issue for major car makers recently as Chinese auto firms rise in prominance.
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