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07.08.05
Counterfeits in China
Product piracy crackdown results in 2,600 arrests
China, responding to U.S. complaints that it is failing to act sufficiently against product piracy, said it has made 2,600 piracy arrests in the last eight months.
BEIJING - China has arrested some 2,600 people in an 8-month-old crackdown on product piracy, the government said Tuesday, criticizing U.S. complaints that it is failing to stop rampant copying of foreign movies, music and other goods.
Authorities have destroyed 63 million compact discs and other counterfeit goods estimated to be worth 860 million yuan ($105 million), said Vice Commerce Minister Zhang Zhigang, speaking at a nationally televised news conference.
Zhang acknowledged that China still faces ''quite a few problems,'' but he criticized the United States for adding Beijing to a list of 14 countries that receive special scrutiny due to widespread violation of copyrights and other intellectual property rights.
''China has made great efforts to promote IPR protection,'' Zhang said. "Under such circumstances, to accuse China of misconduct or lack of protection of IPR is unreasonable.''
The U.S. government said in April that product piracy in China had reached ''epidemic levels'' and has warned that Beijing could face formal complaints in the World Trade Organization, raising the threat of trade sanctions.
China is regarded as the world's biggest source of illegally copied goods ranging from Hollywood movies and Microsoft Corp. software to Ralph Lauren designer shirts and Callaway golf clubs.
Estimates of potential lost sales to legitimate producers worldwide range from $16 billion to as much as $50 billion a year. China's own producers of music, software and other goods say they also suffer huge losses.
Despite repeated crackdowns, counterfeit goods are widely available in Chinese shops.
Authorities have brought 600 criminal cases against product pirates since the crackdown began in August, and have won convictions in 99.9 percent of cases, said Shen Deyong, the deputy chief judge of China's supreme court, who appeared at the news conference with Zhang.
Shen didn't say how many people were convicted or what penalties they had received.
But China has begun imposing jail time for violations after its trading partners complained that earlier penalties limited only to fines were too light to deter pirates.