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An employee of Apple Inc. (AAPL) was arrested Friday for allegedly receiving more than $1 million in kickbacks from six companies in Asia that serve as suppliers to the Silicon Valley company.

Paul Shin Devine, a global supply manager at Apple, was charged in a federal grand jury indictment of offenses that include wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions. The indictment also names Andrew Ang, an employee of one of Apple's suppliers.

Apple also named Devine in a civil suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., which includes allegations of fraud and violations of racketeering laws. He is scheduled to make a court appearance Monday.

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

"Apple is committed to the highest ethical standards in the way we do business," said an Apple spokesman, adding that it has "zero tolerance for dishonest behavior inside or outside of the company."

Devine couldn't be reached for comment. Arlette Lee, an agent for the Internal Revenue Service, confirmed that it conducted the investigation jointly with the FBI and that Devine was being held in an unknown location by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Lee said Devine didn't yet have an attorney. She declined to comment on Ang's whereabouts. The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service didn't return calls seeking comment.

The case was reported earlier by the San Jose Mercury News.

According to the indictment and the civil suit, Devine came up with an elaborate scheme in which he supplied companies like Cresyn Co. Ltd. in South Korea, Kaedar Electronics Co. Ltd. in China and Jin Li Mould Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. in Singapore with confidential information that would let them negotiate favorable contracts with Apple.

In return, Devine demanded payments, which were sent to bank accounts in his wife's name in amounts that were small enough to avoid attention. He shared part of the money with Ang, who was an employee of Jin Li, and helped broker deals with Jin Li as well as others.

Apple's lawsuit said Devine began working for Apple in July 2005 as a manager responsible for selecting and managing relationships with companies that supply Apple with parts and materials for iPods and iPod accessories.

Jin Li, Cresyn and Kaedar couldn't immediately be reached.

Apple's complaint said it began investigating Devine for a possible violation of its corporate policy and found a cache of suspicious emails from his personal Hotmail and Gmail accounts in his company laptop computer that contained discussions with suppliers that included confidential corporate information and acknowledgements of payments received.

The Cupertino, Calif., company said these activities apparently took place from October 2006 until the present. The federal indictment said the scheme took place no later than February 2007.

-By Yukari Iwatani Kane, The Wall Street Journal

Friday, Jobs addressed concerns raised by Consumer Reports and many blogs about dropped calls from the placement of the antenna on the new iPhone 4 by offering free phone cases to customers, but adding that the same reception issues plague the rest of the industry.

Rob Enderle, an independent analyst at the Enderle Group, says he thinks Jobs enflamed the situation.

"An apology and free cases would have ended it," he says. "But by throwing all the other phone companies under the bus, he made it worse because they have to respond, and that keeps it alive."

Competitors are howling. "Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable," say Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie , co-CEOs of Research In Motion , which makes the BlackBerry. "RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs, which reduce the risk for reduced calls."

At his press conference, Jobs demonstrated antenna issues on phones from RIM, Motorola and HTC, saying they experienced the same dropped calls if gripped on the side in poor signal areas.

"It is disingenuous to suggest that all phones perform equally," Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha says in a statement. "In our own testing, we have found that ( Motorola's) Droid X performs much better than iPhone 4 when held by consumers."

Apple's(AAPL) customer base is fanatically loyal, which helps explain why the return rate Jobs cited for the iPhone 4 of just 1.7% was so small, says Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research . Some 3 million phones have been sold to date, and many of the purchasers camped out to get them.

"The press conference was aimed at the fan base, to remind them that they're being loved and taken care of, which he did, and the people on the fence, who are trying to decide between the iPhone and another phone," he says.

Independent purchasers will need another form of validation — from Consumer Reports or influential blogs — that says it's all right to buy the iPhone 4, even if it needs a case, Golvin adds.

So far, Consumer Reports says the cases are a "step in the right direction," but the phone still isn't on its recommended list.

Apple so far doesn't appear to be hurting financially from the reception issue.

The phone is sold out nationally. Calls Sunday to Apple Stores in Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, confirmed this, with backlogs of three to four weeks. Online, Apple says it will take three weeks to fulfill the orders.

美国兰德公司是一家着名的非盈利的研究机构，为美国官方提供"客观的分析和有效的解决方案"。最近，他们公布了一份对中国现状分析报告，即有肯定，也有严厉批评，值得国人反省。


本文观点来自兰德公司亚太政策中心。


如果20世纪的中国是一个富裕和统一的国家，我们会有一个完全不同的第一次世界大战，我们就不会有第二次世界大战而是第二次欧洲大战。中国能够阻止日本侵略或者打败日本。美国在这些冲突上的花费从根本意义上会减少很多，因为珍珠港事件不会发生。我们和整个世界，更不用说10亿中国人，一个多世纪以来，已经为中国的弱小付出了惨重的代价。世界需要一个健康的中国。


中国的需求对日本走出衰退起到了促进作用。日本状况给世界经济带来了风险。关于这一点，怎么说都不夸张。日本巨额的债务会产生多米诺骨牌效应，逐渐波及到全世界。在中国有力的帮助下，危险似乎已经过去。中国全球化给美国带来了很多影响。最明显的是，中国成为美国商品最大的市场。可口可乐早就完成了那个看上去像是神话的目标：卖10亿瓶可口可乐；曾经嘲笑中国梦的通用在中国卖了很多的别克汽车，在困难时期，中国带来的利润占通用利润的很大一部分；中国联想购买IBM个人电脑业务，挽救了这个垂死部门的工作岗位。中国提供更低价的生活必需品给美国人的生活水平做出了很大的贡献，尤其是对我们不是那么富裕的居民而言。有迹象表明由于能够购买中国低价的出口货物，低收入美国人的生活水平可能提高了5%到10%。


中国金融体系的不合理意味着中国建造了垂死企业，导致巨大的生产力过剩。近些年来，中国财政政策上的反复无常导致过度建造，对铁、铝、水泥和其他原材料产生了巨大的需求。日本人和现在的中国人看上去似乎会买下世界上所有的东西，但是当你看到他们的财政状况的潜在问题时，你会发现一个黑洞。日本人在90年代陷入了这样一个黑洞，至今还在努力地爬出来。中国人很多年后仍将会为目前这种无节制的狂热的购买行为感到心痛。


目前，中国面临着巨大的挑战。中国的银行是我们所知道的世界上最糟糕的银行。中国每一代，都有相当于美国规模的人口从农村涌入城市。每年，都有1200- 1300万新工人加入就业大军。在制造业，生产力对就业的影响比我们国家要严重得多。到2020年，中国人口老龄化会使工作人口与不工作人口的比率成为世界上最糟糕的，比日本更甚。如果没有特效的新政策的话，中国的经济在那个时期就会狠狠地撞墙。到2020年，以我们的标准来看，它会是一个非常穷的国家。


中国人缺乏诚信和社会责任感。中国人不了解他们作为社会个体应该对国家和社会所承担的责任和义务。普通中国人通常只关心他们的家庭和亲属，中国的文化是建立在家族血缘关系上而不是建立在一个理性的社会基础之上。中国人只在乎他们直系亲属的福址，对与自己毫不相关的人所遭受的苦难则视而不见。毫无疑问，这种以血缘关系为基础的道德观势必导致自私，冷酷，这种自私和冷酷已经成为阻碍中国社会向前发展的最关键因素。


中国从来就没有成为一个法制社会，因为中国人的思维方式与守法行为格格不入。中国人老想走捷径。他们不明白这样一个事实：即成就来自于与努力工作和牺牲。中国人倾向于索取而不给予。他们需要明白一个道理：生活的真蒂不在于你你索取多少而在于你能给予社会和你的人类同胞多少。


大多数中国人从来就没有学到过什么是体面和尊敬的生活意义。中国人普遍不懂得如何为了个人和社会的福址去进行富有成效的生活。潜意识里，中国人视他们的生活目的就是抬高自己从而获得别人的认知。这样一来，一个人就会对"保有面子"这样微不足道欲望感到满足。"面子"是中国人心理最基本的组成部分，它已经成为了中国人难以克服的障碍，阻碍中国人接受真理并尝试富有意义的生活。这个应受谴责的习性使得中国人生来就具有无情和自私的特点，它已成为中国落后的主要原因。


中国人没有勇气追求他们认为正确的事情。首先，他们没有从错误中筛选正确事物的能力，因为他们的思想被贪婪所占据。再有，就算他们有能力筛选出正确的事情，他们也缺乏勇气把真理化为实践。


中国人习惯接受廉价和免费的事物，他们总是梦想奇迹或者好运，因为他们不愿意付出努力，他们总想不劳而获。很少有中国人明白一个事实，就是威望和成就是通过一步步努力的工作和牺牲实现的，不付出就没有所得。简单来说，如果是为了谋生，那一个人只有去索取；但如果是为了生活，一个人必须要去奉献。


由于在贫穷的环境下生长并且缺少应有的教育，大多数中国人不懂得优雅的举止和基本的礼貌。他们中的大多数人着装笨拙粗鄙却不感到害羞。他们在青少年时所受的教育就是如何说谎并从别人那里索取，而不是去与别人去分享自己的所有。


中国是一个物产丰富的国家。但无限制生育政策所带来恶果使得中国成为了无限廉价劳动力的输出国。这些输出也包括那些受过教育的劳力输出，除了他们的教育水平，实则和其他一般苦力没有本质上的区别。


中国大规模生产的便宜产品降低了输入这些产品的地区的商业信用度。由于技术落后，管理失败，中国制造的单位能耗要比发达国家如日本，美国高出很多。因此，随着出口额的增加，中国在扩大生产的同时丧失着宝贵的能源。同时，这种行为也严重的污染了环境，使中国变为全世界最不适宜人类居住的国家。


目前中国正在遭受着资本主义社会2大邪恶的折磨，即环境的破坏与人性的丧失。由于中国人天生的贪婪的本性，它们可以毫无保留的接受资本主义的阴暗面即无止境的追求利润，忽视人的尊严。中国人对西方的技术与产品狂热追求却对西方管理文化所强调的坦率，直接，诚实这些品质漠不关心。


由于中国文化不鼓励敢于冒险这种优良品质，所以中国人极力避免冒险，他们也不想寻求机会来改善自己的生活。中国人对于生活的平衡性和意义性并不感兴趣，相反他们更执迷于对物质的索取，这点上要远远胜于西方人。大多数中国人发现他们不懂得"精神灵性"，"自由信仰"以及"心智健康"这样的概念，因为他们的思想尚不能达到一个生命（补：即肉体和灵性的并存）存在的更高层次。他们的思想还停留在专注于动物本能对性和食物那点贪婪可怜的欲望上。


在中国人的眼中，受教育不是为了寻求真理或者改善生活质量，而只是身份和显赫地位的象征和标志。中国的知识分子从别人那里得到尊敬并不是因为他们为了别人的幸福做过什么，而只是因为他们获得占有了相当的知识。事实上，他们中的大多数只不过是一群仅仅通晓考试却从不关心真理和道德的食客。


中国的教育体系很大程度上已经成为一种失败和耻辱。它已经不能够服务于教育本应所服务的对象：社会。这个教育体系不能提供给社会许多有用的个体。它只是制造出一群投机分子，他们渴望能够受益于社会所提供的好处却毫不关心回报。


中国可以培养出大批的高级技能人才，但却很少可以培养出合格的可以独立主持的管理级专家。服务于一个公司或者社会，光有技术是不够的；还需要有勇气，胆量，正直和诚实的领导才能，这恰恰是大多数中国人所缺少的品性。正如亚瑟。史密斯，一位着名的西方传教士一个世纪前所指出的，中国人最缺乏的不是智慧，而是勇气和正直的纯正品性。这个评价，虽然历经百年，如今依旧准确诊断出中国综合症的病因。


大多数中国毕业生对选择出国并为外国工作不会感到内疚，事实上他们首先欠下了中国人民在教育上为他们所做出的牺牲。随着传统文化价值观的破坏和逐步衰弱，大多数的中国人，包括受过教育的人都徘徊在精神和内心世界的路口，像迷失的狗一样不知何去何从。