Copy-cats Continues to Rampage in China
China has been the center of attention of the mass media when it comes to the discussion of economic growth and power, thanks to its soon-to-be second-largest economy. However, behind the glamorous statistics and growth are the rampage of copy-cats with their “re-created” products that are generating billions of dollars worth of GDP. Even though China tops the rest of the world in patent applications with society’s growing awareness of intellectual property law, copyright infringement continues to escalate without the strict enforcement of laws.
Copyright issues are almost visible in every aspect of life in China, from commodities on online shopping platforms to academic papers published on authoritative platforms. It refers to when an individual presents other people’s work or ideas as their own without permission from the original creator and acknowledgment for the work. It is also the application or deletion of the original content without authorization, leading to a preserved idea that copying is a re-creation of the original work even though it violates the interest of creators. Individual cases of copyright infringement occur often as a result of self-interest; but when plagiarism becomes a “culture”, the reason lies in the sociocultural system. According to Chinese communist beliefs, all property — including ideas — belong to the society and therefore should be kept as such. While some argue that China should wait for international regulations like patents, sanctions, or unifying copyright laws to moderate the burgeoning copyright crimes, I believe China should take a national approach to start regulating its society now because permitting the copycat culture can lead to possible economic and political consequences on an international level. Instead of waiting for authorities like the International Law Commission to save China from the riot of copy-cats, the country should take action proactively and immediately.
On a national level, the negative outcomes can be evaluated from three different perspectives: the perpetrator, the consumers, and the victims. The perpetrators fail to realize the nature of their action, exploiting the fact that the public has weak copyright awareness which results in endless plagiarism; the consumers benefit from lower prices and a wider product range, thereby choosing to ignore whether the design was copied from elsewhere; and the victims do not know how to take legal actions or protect their work, resulting in the growing tolerance for plagiarism. This reveals that Chinese society has always been kept under a position where the gains from plagiarism significantly exceed its potential costs.
On the global level, however, the potential consequences are much more problematic. From the economic perspective, a large portion of the domestic GDP is generated from theft and fraud. In other words, the Chinese economy is established on dirty money derived from copyright crimes. The Chinese manufacturers are currently exploiting the fact that citizens have low awareness of copyright and how their production is small scale within the countries so that they do not have to take responsibility for copying designs from other countries. This gives China an unfair advantage over other countries because costs to produce new designs are eliminated. Consequently, if foreign firms decide to track responsibility and take legal action against China, there might be monetary repercussions leading to financial struggles like national debt or economic recessions for China. Further, if the Chinese economy continues to rely on making profits from stealing intellectual property, China could be put into a position where foreign firms are no longer willing to trade or work with them.
From the political perspective, China’s public stature will be harmed significantly due to its consistent dishonorable act of stealing intellectual properties. Trust and confidence in the country will be undermined along with its international reputation. As a result, China should implement its very own copyright legislation right now to strengthen patent protection in the country and avoid an inferior reputation on the global market. Otherwise, the country would lose its political and economic standing in the international community.
Some may argue that patent and copyright laws should be made the same all over the world, as this is a more direct way of solving copyright infringements universally. Admittedly, one advantage of this method is that plagiarism is a globally prevalent issue suffered by many countries. With the acceleration of information transformation and communication, international plagiarism cases involving different countries only increase and escalate. Therefore, by enforcing a globally uniform legal framework, people’s awareness of copyrights and patents is forced to increase thereby gradually reducing copyright infringements. Another major advantage is that manufacturers will no longer have the opportunity to make easy and quick money by exploiting the variance in copyright laws which differs from country to country. Customers online demand cheap products, and they crave wide product choices. This has fostered plagiarism in product design, in particular the fashion industry, generating approximately a hundred million dollars of profit in 2021 for Taobao, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms based in China. Clothes with designs stolen from Korean, Japanese, and the U.S. are labeled “original” and sold at an exceptionally cheap price, recreated using similar fabrics and almost identical cuts. Thus, opponents are correct when they say having one identical regulation all over the world is effective to create a safe environment for creators and producers to innovate.
Naturally, this is the ideal situation; in real life, by contrast, a universally same legal system on copyright is almost impossible to achieve. Not only does every country’s legal systems have diverse origins, but local legislators have also modified laws over time in response to local requirements and opinions. Consider the priorities that different countries build into their legal system: Western traditions prioritize freedom while the Chinese legal structure prioritizes democracy. Even within the United States, laws are different according to states. It is important to remember that the legal system is created to accommodate local needs and sociocultural structure, and universal sameness is not something that people should desire. Therefore, achieving a broad consensus on what legislation is appropriate for the entire globe is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
In conclusion, waiting for international regulation is too late, and imposing the same set of copyright legislation across every country is almost impossible to achieve. China should take a national approach of actively enforcing strict copyright regulations now because relying on copycats to generate domestic GDP can lead to a damaged reputation and undermined political and economic public stature across the globe.
