A major fake goods gang was busted after cooperation between Chinese and US authorities, with 73 suspects being arrested and 20,000 fake brand name bags seized. It is believed the gang made the bags in China, sold them around the world and had raked in around 5 billion yuan ($802 million) in ill-gotten gains.
The Ministry of Public Security announced Sunday that the joint investigation was launched in January by the Chinese police and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The suspects were found to be producing a large number of counterfeits in Guangzhou, Fujian and Anhui, labeling them as famous brands, such as LV, Hermes and Coach, and selling them to the US, the Middle East and other countries and regions.
The size of the organized criminal gang and its transnational network of buyers had increased the difficulty of nabbing the perpetrators, but the cooperation with US forces helped bring the matter to a close, said the ministry.
"Cross-national cooperation can help make up limitations in the law and better contain increasing illegal trades," said Xu Xinming, an intellectual property lawyer.
Wang Sixin, a professor with the School of Politics and Law at the Communication University of China, told the Global Times that such international operations should take place more often to build up China's credibility of protecting intellectual property rights (IPR).
China had made great efforts in fighting such infringement, but acknowledged more work had to be done to improve the ability of the police to deter and detect ongoing high-profit IPR crimes, Wang told the Global Times.
Landmark building should respect the public's feeling
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