Recently China has seemed to go out of its way to protect knowledge property rights in its attempt to eliminate pirating. However, observers point out that pirating is rampant in China. It seems that China’s campaign of “striking hard at pirating” is mostly lip service, as pirated merchandise continually floods Chinese markets making many foreign merchants flinch.

The China Cultural Department introduced a new symbol for preventing imitation audio and video products on Feb. 15, and added 13 distinguishing points such as a DNA ink. Cultural Department officials expressed that this new step will prevent fake productions, and let consumers check products for authenticity. Also, to strengthen property rights the Chinese government created a new website to register new products.

However, observers consider that pirating has become a way of life in China, and people don’t hold much hope that China's new measures will be effective in preventing pirating. Forbes Magazine, specializing in finance and economics, pointed out that pirated products flooded the market early on, and consumers buying the real edition productions will be surprised by the cost. According to a statistic from a business association, almost 95 percent of audio and video products sold on Chinese markets are pirated.

Blockbuster, an international video renting industry, recently announced in Hong Kong that the rampant pirating activities are forcing them to gradually close 24 stores in Hong Kong in the next 18 months, and give up their plan of resurrecting the Chinese video market. Mike Wang, Blockbuster marketing department administrator, stationed in Hong Kong expressed that while the heavily populated Chinese market is attractive, pirated movies costless than 10 yuan, making it very difficult to sell or rent legitimate videos at a profit.

Pirated labels also flood the music industry. Nanhua Morning Edition said that China’s CCTV station is the largest user of pirated music. During recent years, CCTV has broadcast hundreds of songs from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries in the area without paying any tax on copyright. In Britain, the copyright tax on radio and television is $1.8 billion a year; copyright fees come to five billion dollars in the United States. China CCTV’s reliance on pirated products causes the international audio and video industry to lose billions of dollars.

But pirating is not found just in the music, movie and computer industry; even the automobile industry has felt the effects. Several months ago, General Motors Chevrolet Spark was introduced to China as the “Chery QQ” that is like a replica of Chevrolet’s Spark with some superficial changes. According to Ford, Chinese factories counterfeiting hardware of Ford automobiles are costing Ford $20 billion loss per year.