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Cornell Expert on Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China

"The recent protests by counterfeiters against the Chinese government crackdown on counterfeiting and piracy in Beijing's Silk Market is the boldest assertion of anti-intellectual property sentiment in China for some time. Rather than demonstrate government indifference, however, this protest indicates the desperation of retailers facing the current economic slowdown.

Trade and commerce in pirated and counterfeit goods has provided a soft landing for many people laid off from state-owned enterprises in the 1990s-2000s, people who would otherwise be on the street, ready to mobilize against the government that took their state jobs away. Insofar as this sentiment we see in Beijing is widespread, we might see an increased accommodation between the Chinese government and these retailers in the months to come.

This would be yet another way in which the U.S. and other Western economies are taking a hit during these tough economic times: by pirates and counterfeiters who pose much less of a threat to the government when they are employed than when they are on the dole."

Andrew Mertha, Associate Professor of Chinese Politics, Cornell University Mertha web sites: http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/Govt/faculty/Mertha.html

The Cornell Press Relations Office web site has more information on experts at Cornell at: http://pressoffice.cornell.edu/HotTopics.shtml

Mertha is the author of The Politics of Piracy: Intellectual Property in Contemporary China, and is available for broadcast or print interviews. Please contact Nicola Pytell in the Cornell Press Relations Office at nwp2@cornell.edu or 607-351-3548 to schedule in- depth interviews or with questions.