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)