U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans has urged Chinese leaders to take more steps toward intellectual property rights protection.
Evans’ visit to Beijing was in response to growing concerns from the U.S. over the billions of dollars lost due to Chinese imitations of American products.
As USA Today pointed out, “U.S. officials usually visit the Chinese capital to urge the country’s communist rulers to let people out of jail,” but Evans went to Beijing demanding that the country jail more citizens.
“Within the year, you’ve got to see those that are stealing and cheating and counterfeiting and pirating – you’ve got to see them going to jail,” Evans said in a USA TODAY interview.
“The process of getting the correct enforcement structure in place is important and hopefully will lead to the kinds of results that we think are acceptable,” Evans said. “And, to begin with, the kind of results that are acceptable are to reverse the trend of the dramatically growing counterfeiting and piracy and stealing that is taking place.”
A Chinese official claimed that their crackdown on piracy is already severe while American officials and lawyers see the laws as too vague.
