China hits back at EU over piracy allegations

BEIJING - China has questioned Europol allegations that the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong are the world centres for fake goods, saying it might be an excuse for protectionism. The State newsagency Xinhua quoted Zhao Ping, of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, as saying: “It may be convincing that they have figures for fake Chinese products in Europe, but it is suspicious that they calculated fake products in China and even China’s share of global fake products.” 

In 2015, the Mainland and Hong Kong “were the provenance of 85% of global counterfeiting and US$396.5 billion worth of counterfeit goods,” Europe’s police agency said in a detailed 74-page report, adding that intellectual property theft was “one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises”.

China’s Commerce Ministry has previously said China is aware of the importance of IPR protection, and has made obvious progress in this area.  www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).