A US senator, demanding strong action against Beijing for copyright piracy, brought Chinese fake auto parts to a public hearing to underline the seriousness of the counterfeit threat to the US auto industry.
Displaying counterfeit connecting rods and spark plug wire sets sold in China, Democratic Senator Carl Levin on Wednesday told a meeting of the Congress-backed US-China Economic and Security Review Commission that product counterfeiting had emerged as one of the US auto parts industry's greatest concerns with China.
"I brought some examples of counterfeit parts to show you how sophisticated counterfeiters have become in making fake products that look and feel identical to the originals," the senator from Michigan, the world's automotive capital, told the hearing.
With the trade in counterfeit auto parts from China booming, he said, the concern went beyond the monetary losses like those suffered by a company when a handbag is copied or a high-end watch counterfeited.
"When the connecting rod on your car is fake or your brakes are made of compressed grass and wood, your life and the lives of your loved ones are at risk," Levin said.
The auto parts industry estimates millions of counterfeit auto parts enter the US every year and only a fraction of them are ever detected at the border by US enforcement officials, he said.
According to estimates by US auto suppliers, China was responsible for about 75 percent of counterfeit US auto parts sold outside the US, totaling US$9 billion.
"The theft of intellectual property in China has become so widespread and bold that recently an entire car was copied, manu-factured and sold under a different name," Levin said.
"The counterfeiter even had plans to export the knock-off to the United States," he told the meeting, which examined questions of intellectual property losses to China from a variety of US industries, including key manufacturing sectors, such as electronics and pharmaceuticals.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) has warned it was considering bringing a case in the WTO against China for failing to enforce intellectual property laws, but Levin noted "nothing has materialized to date."
"USTR is a paper tiger, I'm afraid," he said. "There China sits while our government dawdles. We need to stop merely putting China on lists and start taking more effective action."
US officials told the meeting that Washington was considering hauling China to the WTO for inadequate enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Assistant USTR Timothy Stratford said his office was intensifying work within the US government and with affected industries to compile data and lay other necessary groundwork "for a possible case."
"We have two criteria for assessing whether to bring a case. It must be winnable, and it must be the most effective means for addressing the underlying concern," he said.
The US is the only country that has brought a case against China in the WTO.
"And the United States government is again left with no choice but to consider filing another complaint against China, this time for inadequate enforcement of IPR," said Chris Israel, the US coordinator for international intellectual property enforcement at the Department of Commerce.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique