Genuine audio-visual products have started to gain ground against fakes in a reversal of a downward trend that started in 1997, according to figures out Tuesday.
The latest statistics from South China's Guangdong Province - one of China's largest wholesale markets for audio-visual products - indicate 885 million yuan (US$106 million) worth of genuine audio-visual products were distributed last year, 45.7 per cent higher than the amount in 2000.
In the first half of this year, the amount distributed was worth 795 million yuan (US$95.8 million).
Experts discussed the fight against pirated goods at a meeting held yesterday in Xiamen in East China's Fujian Province.
Wang Maolin, head of the national office to combat pornography and illegal publications, said that an improved legal system has provided more legal support to the fight against smuggled and pirated discs.
Laws and regulations on copyright, the protection of computer software, the control of audio-visual products and the administration of movies have been adjusted to take account of the promises that China made to the World Trade Organization at the beginning of this year.
Gui Xiaofeng, vice-minister at the State Press and Publication Administration, said: "In the past, people smuggling pornographic publications could be held criminally responsible and prosecuted according to the law but those smuggling other publications evaded that punishment."
Under new judicial interpretations of existing laws, people smuggling audio-visual discs are accused of the crime of smuggling ordinary articles. The standard used to calculate the amount of tax evaded is based on the price of discs in the Hong Kong market.
Using the new regulations, customs authorities have put a number of disc smugglers behind bars.
Xu Jiuzhong, the prime mover behind the smuggling in October 2000 of 4.52 million pirated discs, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (US$361,500).
Wang Maolin said: "We are now able to punish these smugglers and pirates severely according to the law, and give them no chance and no money to restart their illegal business."
Incomplete statistics show that police and customs authorities confiscated 60.28 million smuggled discs from last August to June this year in Guangdong Province alone.
To cut off the channels for smuggling and transporting pirated discs, the mainland police and customs have vowed to co-operate more with their counterparts in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, as well as check planes, trains and freight transport.
( China Daily July 24, 2002)
