They really brought out the big guns for this one: Giant balloons reached toward the clouds. Hundreds of customs agents stood in rows, listening to marching music that included a chunk of "It's a Small World After All." FM 95.1 went live.
And amid it all, outside the Ping Pong Pavilion of the Zhuhai Athletic Center stadium, 15 industrial-strength wood chippers all in a row did just what they were trotted out for Tuesday afternoon -- made minced plastic out of 16 million counterfeit CDs, DVDs and CD-ROMS.
``This is one of the most important issues facing us today,'' said Shi Zongyuan, the official in charge of anti-piracy efforts in southern China. ``Getting rid of pirated CDs will give us a much-needed economic boost.''
China mounts such a spectacle every few months -- though usually on a smaller scale than Tuesday -- to show that it is serious about stopping rampant product piracy.
The events get lavish coverage in state media, but the real target audience is abroad -- China's angry trading partners. Foreign producers of music, film and software say Chinese pirates are ruining their businesses.
The publicity usually recedes, only to resurface several months later. But as China's virtually certain membership into the World Trade Organization approaches in November, such crackdowns are being spotlighted -- and, China says, being carried out -- even more than usual. Conferences have been convened, harsh statements released. In March, Premier Zhu Rongji went so far as to say that counterfeiting was making him lose sleep.
Last month, China announced investigations of Rolex and Seiko watches, Kodak and Fuji film boxes and medicine bearing well-known British trademarks.
The list goes on. Fake cigarettes, fake name-brand rice, even fake Pearl River Bridge soy sauce have been seized in recent weeks -- and duly reported by Chinese media.
But the event Tuesday in Zhuhai, infused with the spirit of a communist rally, was extraordinary in both scale and organization.
This was press release as public spectacle. Who -- especially photographers and TV reporters -- doesn't like to see something crushed by big machines that make a lot of noise? It made for great visuals, as organizers well knew.
Zhuhai sits on the southern Chinese coast beside the former Portuguese colony of Macau. The region is both a major export-manufacturing base and the heart of China's piracy industry.
RSS