Market watchdogs launched a nationwide campaign to eliminate
underhanded practices and better protect the rights of consumers,
whose awareness of their rights has been growing in recent
years.
China staged a number of events Monday in honor of the 22nd
annual World Consumer Rights Day.
The country's leading market watchdog, the State General
Administration for Industry and Commerce (GAIC), arranged
activities Monday to destroy pirated products seized from sellers
and manufacturers.
The China Consumers'
Association (CCA) launched a nationwide inspection of 10
industries to ensure that businesses protect consumer rights and
interests. The industries under scrutiny are food, housing,
construction materials and interior decoration, travel services,
insurance, medicine and medical instruments, telecommunications and
automobiles.
Newspapers, TV and websites helped to put the spotlight on the
rights of consumers.
Wang Jiadong, director of the Beijing Capital International
Airport Co., said the country's largest aviation hub kicked off a
month-long drive to solicit passengers' opinions and complaints
about airport service. The company plans to reward those who submit
the most constructive suggestions and solutions.
But consumers said they want protection, not just lip
service.
"The market watchdog should not organize a protection campaign
only on one day; the authorities should crack down on market
misbehavior every day," Beijing resident Jiang Zhong told China
Daily. "If they do that, the market will improve and consumers
will feel more comfortable."
GAIC chief Wang Zhongfu pledged that his organization will
continue to play a major role in the nation's large-scale campaign
to eliminate counterfeit goods. Last year, it investigated more
than 160,000 cases involving the production and sale of fake goods
and violations of consumers' rights.
Most of those cases concerned food, mobile phones, fertilizer
and seeds, housing, cars and public utilities such as electricity,
natural gas, heating systems, communications and cable television.
More than half the cases concerned food, reported the GAIC.
An administration official said that cars and housing were still
a hot topic.
"But the cases involving cars and houses are difficult to solve
because a lot of money is involved. In many instances it involves a
person's life savings," said an official who asked not to be
named.
This is why increasing numbers of consumers are becoming more
concerned with such issues as product quality and after-sales
service, she said.
It is only in recent years that housing and cars have become
affordable for the average Chinese consumer, and consequently few
have any real understanding of these markets or the potential
pitfalls.
This, combined with a vacuum in service standards, leaves many
consumers easy prey to unscrupulous dealers, said the official.
Wang Zhongfu said tougher competition has forced more dealers to
recognize the importance of reputation. More of them are beginning
to self-regulate because they are eager to win customers with
product quality and after-sales service.
Yet administrative monopolies, forced deals and market blockades
have become a cancer in China's domestic market, he noted.
He said his administration will tighten the nationwide campaign
started in 2002 to fight local protectionism and maintain fair
competition.
Teng Jiacai, general secretary of the CCA, said his association
will focus its annual inspection on quality, sanitation, safety,
prices, logos of the commodities or services provided by the 10
industries and see whether there is any fraud.
The CCA has conducted the yearly campaign since 1997.
(China Daily March 16, 2004)