That is what Professor Aaron Schwabach at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego says.   He has written a 24-page report that essentially says China, taken as a whole, is not the leading global pirate. When figures are adjusted for population, China's rates of intellectual property violation are lower than those of many industrialized countries, including the United States.

Schwabach says the media and U.S. politicians are prone to China-bashing. He then examines figures on international movie piracy provided by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and compares those figures to the populations of the countries involved. The report concludes that the problem of movie piracy is more severe in the U.S. than in China and more severe still in other countries, including France, Spain, and the United Kingdom.  Even Mexico has a far higher rate of pirated music CDs than China.