China carries out piracy purge

Workers across the country set fire to 30 million pirated discs and 11 million illegally published books and magazines, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

 

Long said the campaign was also meant to “improve the awareness of the general public in fighting against pornography and illegal publications”.

 

 

Law enforcement officers in the provincial capital of Guangzhou used shredding machines to get rid of 10 million pirated discs and 500,000 illegal publications, the report said.

 

Xinhua said a quarter of the pirated material was destroyed in Guangdong, the economically dynamic southern province that abuts Hong Kong.

 

The US, which has had long-running disputes with China over copyright piracy and over what it says is China’s unwillingness to satisfactorily overhaul its currency system.

 

Last week the US filed two complaints against China at the World Trade Organisation, accusing Beijing of violating its trade commitments by failing to stop product piracy and placing market access barriers against US companies offering US-produced books, films and music.

 

On Wednesday, China warned that the US complaints against Beijing in the WTO could damage commercial relations between the two countries.

 

The US administration has come under much internal pressure to be tougher on trade with China, with congressional anger over last year’s record $232bn trade deficit with China hampering efforts to win a renewal of a trade promotion authority – legislation that the White House needs to finish negotiations on the Doha round of world trade talks.

 

China regularly defends its record on fighting piracy, saying it is a developing country and needs time.