Hi Paul, very valid concerns that I've heard mentioned a few times.
I spoke to Russell in person for a good few hours a couple months back and we discussed this at length.
1. Russell has a relationship with Vlado spanning many years as well as many mutual connections. The first reason this won't happen is due to a reputation factor. If Tinjoy doesn't pay AHI and they break contract, Russell's reputation and career would take a big hit, not to mention the Chinese government is very steadfast against fraud and would definitely prosecute Tinjoy if they did that. Tinjoy has government party members on board as well as other business subsidiaries and quite a reputation they have to maintain in China so that definitely won't happen. Not to mention, they are quite rich (I think their CEO made a few billions RMB from crypto in the last few years) and wouldn't see a few million as a significant sum.
2. Russell (and myself) are both quite adamant that the whole myth surrounding IP theft in China is simply not true. Russell has never seen any company have their IP stolen in proper business dealings. Small start up companies that haven't properly protected their IP may have succumbed to other competitors, but never in a setting where there are contracts between two established companies. A lot of this myth comes from western media propaganda. Also once again, reputation and relationships are all factors. Besides, Tinjoy don't have the capability to replicate the tech even if they wanted to go this route, as AHI's tech works off multiple deals with other companies (Eye/face scan, skin scan, blooth scan, body scan) so it's no longer just a simple single piece of tech to steal and if they switch it off for Tinjoy, it would just stop working.
3. Westerners don't need to trust the Chinese government, the money will come through regardless of the westerner's trust. Having lived here for the past 2 years, I actually see the Chinese government today as a lot fairer of a governing body than a typical Western government. I would not have said the same thing about the government 10 years ago, but today it is definitely one with less corruption and injustice. Also as mentioned, Tinjoy have strong relationships with multiple government party members as well as some that sit on the board directly, and so if anything the government connections are a benefit to them and it's in their mutual interests for this deal to go well since without AHI this product stream for them wouldn't happen.
There is definitely a lot of misconception around running a deal in China and the safety risks involved, Russell (An Australian) worked in Australia for the major part of his career and held very high reputable positions (COO of CPIC before Tinjoy - also the ONLY foreigner in a management position in CPIC which is actually unheard of as China likes to appoint locals to these positions) and operates everything above board, with only the vision to make money with AHI. He's been very transparent with me (who is just a shareholder) and would not do so if they had other thoughts.
So in conclusion, none of these risks are real to me at all, possible risks I would consider is whether competitors would start popping up in the market after this launch, diluting their market share. But even then, they won't be able to offer nearly as much capability as what AHI offers.
(20min delay)