China's battle against intellectual-property rights piracy will take "generations," a senior official said Thursday, adding that the main victims are Chinese and that other countries should stop politicizing the issue.
Tian Lipu, commissioner of China's Intellectual Property Office, said the government did not fear the United States' decision to take China to the World Trade Organization over complaints of widespread counterfeiting.
"Have you ever heard of another country whose whole leadership, including the president, study together intellectual-property rights?" Tian asked reporters on the sidelines of a Communist Party congress.
"I've been working in this field for years, and I've not heard of any other country doing this. But this happens in China," the casually dressed official said.
China regularly defends its record on fighting piracy, saying it is a developing country and needs time. But pirated movies and music discs are openly sold in shops and on street corners in Chinese cities for as little as 8 yuan (about $1) a copy.
"Is (intellectual property) protection a problem? Yes, it is. But is it as serious as some say? Not necessarily. To a greater degree, it's hyped-up, politicized. We cannot accept that," Tian said. "In fact, if China does not do well, the biggest victim will be China itself."
Tian said he had been taken to the northern province of Shandong to see an antipiracy sweep, in which counterfeit DVDs and CDs had been rounded up.
"We discovered something: more than 90 percent of the pirated discs were of Chinese artists," he said.
What China really lacked was awareness about why it was important to protect intellectual-property rights. It was only in 2000 that the Chinese expression for IPR protection started appearing in dictionaries, Tian said.
"How long did it take developed countries? Three hundred years, in the case of countries like Britain, or 200 years in the United States," he said. "One generation is not enough here. If you ask me, I estimate it will take three to five generations."
Piracy is a hot political potato. In April, the United States lodged a complaint with the WTO over Chinese counterfeiting, which followed congressional anger over last year's record $232 billion U.S. trade deficit with China.
Tian brushed off the case.
"The U.S. has taken China to the WTO over (intellectual-property rights). I think China is not scared about this," Lipu said. "The facts will prove our point of view."
