LONDON -- Some months ago I was coming out of a classroom at Fudan University in Shanghai when a man sprinted past me with a suitcase under his arm. He was closely followed by a policeman, who suddenly leaped at him in a rugby tackle and brought him down. The suitcase went up in the air and came crashing down, sending hundreds of counterfeit DVDs flying all over the road.
I said to my teaching assistant that I was impressed with the rigor with which China was meeting its international obligations to enforce intellectual property rights. He laughed and took me round the corner to a line of music shops, all of which had a collection of counterfeit DVDs on sale in the back. The policeman was, I was told, simply carrying out an agreement to protect the shops from competition from itinerant street sellers.
Counterfeit DVDs are available on an open and widespread basis throughout China. Apart from controlling competitive street sellers, the authorities make no attempt to prevent sales.