IBM PC martyrs meet untimely end

A story in this morning's Wall Street Journal said that two men were shot dead for smuggling IBM kit into mainland China. According to the newspaper, the men were summarily executed yesterday for smuggling nearly $7 million worth of kit into the country. The WSJ claimed that companies like Big Blue and Motorola "have long sold to offshore distributors" moving kit into Red China without paying the full duty. Now that IBM has decided it will sell direct, perhaps the lives of others will be spared… ®