Fake goods seized in nationwide crackdown
By Cui Ning (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-08 06:36

Counterfeit goods worth 100 million yuan (US$12 million) have been wiped off shelves nationwide in a year-long campaign launched by authorities last November.

Products seized include sporting goods, drugs and auto parts, said Xiang Xin, secretary-general of the Office of National Working Group for Intellectual Property Rights Protection, at a news conference yesterday in Beijing.

"The crackdown, initiated by the Ministry of Public Security last November, is targeted at slashing the number of fake trademarked products," said Xiang.

She said 419 suspects involved in the counterfeiting of goods had so far been arrested.

In the biggest case, a gang in East China's Zhejiang Province was caught with 650,000 boxes of fake Gillette products valued at 30 million yuan (US$3.5 million).

Last June, the Taizhou Industrial and Commercial Administration grew suspicious of a man, You Fushun, and had reason to believe he was involved with counterfeiting so he was reported to the local public security bureau.

The subsequent investigation turned up the fact that You and several colleagues regularly made the trip to Ningbo, a port city in Zhejiang, to transport fake razors to Yiwu, a commodity centre in the province.

By October 27, the bureau had raided a company which made fake razors in Ningbo, and searched a number of other places known to be frequented by You and his partners.

Police seized 50 boxes of fake razors in Yiwu and caught You and another six suspects red handed.

Following the case, the Ministry of Public Security launched a massive investigation throughout Zhejiang.

Police also caught a gang in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province that had produced 320 tons of fake milk powder.

Other counterfeit products seized over the past five months include auto parts bearing the Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda brand names, fake Viagra, shoes with Adidas and Nike labels, and the famous Chinese liquor Wuliangye.

"We found that one of the factors contributing to the serious counterfeit drug problem is that bulk chemicals are freely available from unauthorized pharmaceutical manufactures," said Wang Xunbiao, Pfizer China's PR manager.

"These substances can easily be acquired by drug counterfeiters and used as the active ingredients in knock-off drugs," Wang said.

(China Daily 04/08/2005 page1)

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