It's business as usual for Beijing copyright pirates
China has muffled dissidents and thinned out its notorious traffic for the Beijing Olympics, but its brazen peddlers of counterfeit goods are proving tougher to bring to heel.
By Agencies |
BEIJING: China has muffled dissidents and thinned out its notorious traffic for the Beijing Olympics, but its brazen peddlers of counterfeit goods are proving tougher to bring to heel. Despite a half-hearted crackdown meant to curb embarrassing copyright theft during the Games, sellers of China���s vast array of counterfeit goods say they are ringing up bumper sales to bargain-hunting Olympic visitors.
���Business is good. We���ve got a lot of new customers now due to the Olympics,��� said a young woman selling pirated Dolce & Gabbana, Polo, and other clothing at Beijing���s Silk Street market.
Many shoppers running the gauntlet of pushy vendors in Silk Street���s narrow corridors did so with the official yellow badges of Olympic visitors hanging from their necks. ���It���s the same as before. But the prices are higher too,��� said Kristian Joergensen, 28, a Danish teacher whose brother-in-law competed for Denmark in archery in Beijing.
China is awash in counterfeit DVDs, fake brand-name clothing, shoes and handbags, infuriating China���s trading partners who say Western firms lose billions of dollars in sales each year as result. The United States filed a case against China in April last year at the World Trade Organisation over the problem.
Vendors said a pre-Olympic crackdown had shut many factories of fake goods, with authorities especially targetting luxury brand knock-offs such as Gucci and Calvin Klein. But with the Olympics underway, knock-offs of Polo, London Fog, Louis Vuitton and other big names were openly sold throughout the city.
���You want Adidas? No problem,��� said a woman vendor, pulling a pair of fake Adidas trainers ��� priced at 250 yuan ��� from a concealed box at the Yashow Clothing Market. The five-story complex is just 200 metres from a shiny new official Adidas store.
ADVERTISEMENT
A store at the market selling pirated DVDs also continued operation, although it had moved from the first floor to a less-conspicuous sixth-floor room. Vendors at the complex brashly sported Olympic volunteer shirts to give their illicit sales a Games gloss. ���The management gave them to us to wear,��� one young female vendor said. ���It���s to show our Olympic spirit!��� Download
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
The Economic Times Business News App for the Latest News in Business, Sensex, Stock Market Updates & More.
Download
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
The Economic Times News App for Quarterly Results, Latest News in ITR, Business, Share Market, Live Sensex News & More.
ADVERTISEMENT
