It should be much tougher to buy a knock-off Rolex at the Xiangyang Road Clothes and Gift Bazaar after Shanghai officials publicly destroyed thousands of pirated watches, DVDs, handbags and other goods at the popular market on Thursday after-noon.
"That shows our firm determination to eliminate counterfeits in the market and also regulate businesses in all local markets," said Jiang Yinghong, a spokeswoman with the Municipal Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau.
Jiang admits, however, that eliminating all counterfeit goods in the city is an ambitious, if not impossible, task.
The Xiangyang market, located at the intersection of Huaihai and Xiangyang roads, is well known for its cheap knock-offs of famous brand-name commodities.
It provides a shopping heaven for locals, expatriates and tourists, but gives easy ammunition to foreign companies that criticize China's negligence of copyright laws.
The local government has decided to concentrate its battle against fake goods on bazaar-style markets, including the Yuyuan Small Commodities Market and the pedestrian mall in the Waigaoqiao Bonded Area.
A 30-member team was sent into the Xiangyang market by the Xuhui branch two months ago.
Officers confiscated 4,980 fake watches, including fake Rolex, Omega, and Longines, among other brands.
They also found 3,208 pirated CDs, VCDs and DVDs, which were destroyed on Thursday.
Officers have also set up 17 bulletin boards throughout the market where they will post names and stall number of vendors caught selling knock-off products.
A manager of the market said any vendor caught twice will be banned from doing business at the bazaar.
Currently about 5 percent of pro-ducts sold at the market are counterfeit, compared with 20 percent last year, said a section chief with the Xuhui branch of the administrative bureau, who identified himself only as Zhang.
"But now we have come to the most difficult and also crucial part of our crackdown."
That's because some stall keepers, in order to evade inspectors, have shifted counterfeits to nearby residences, which they have rented as storehouses.
When customers ask for fake products, they are escorted to the residences, Zhang explained.
Local officers have already uncovered several such storehouses and continue to search for more.
(eastday.com August 31, 2002)
