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Essay on Intellectual Property Protection In China
Introduction
The People's Republic of China has made considerable progress in developing a strong intellectual property rights regime since the early 1970s. Under the newly consolidated rule of Deng Xiaoping and the commencement of the "Four Modernizations" program in December 1978, and with greater intensity as the reform period has progressed, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has publicly acknowledged the need to develop a "knowledge economy" based on a strong system of intellectual property rights (IPR).
Despite the progress, particularly since 1982, significant barriers remain. China must foster a consciousness among the populace that IPR is important, and it must develop the necessary institutions to hold accountable those who infringe such rights. The barriers arise from China's cultural attitudes and from certain contradictory forces at work in the present-day People's Republic of China.
From a cultural perspective, the operant word to describe the similarities found among China's Confucian past, the MarxistLeninist-Maoist era, and the contemporary age - in which the leadership is developing "socialism with Chinese characteristics" - is statism.
Despite the differences among those eras, their overarching ethos is the subordination of the individual to the interests, goals, and policies of the state.
In light of that pervasive statism, one should not interpret efforts by the PRC leadership to protect IPR as evidence of a new-found elevation of the individual or of individuals' rights. Rather, just as the entire economic reform effort is for the leadership a means to increase its power, recent developments in IPR protection reflect an effort in nation-building.
Public statements about building a "knowledge economy" almost always reflect those statist goals. In the words of a recent joint statement by the governor of Guangdong Province and the mayors of Beijing and Shanghai, "Only when it values and promotes a knowledge economy can China put itself....
