In her speech at the welcoming dinner hosted by the 6 organizations including US-China Business Council on the evening of May 24, 2007, Vice-premier Wu Yi of the State Council pointed out that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property right and that through hard work, the public's consciousness for IP protection in China has obviously been raised.

 

Wu Yi said that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao respectively had had, on many occasions, elaborated on the Chinese government's firm stand for the protection of intellectual property right.  The Chinese government is fully aware that the establishment and the constant improvement in the IP system is a requirement for our own development.  Therefore, we are resolute in our attitudes and down-to-earth in our work-style and the achievements thus obtained is also obvious to all.

 

It has not been long for China to establish its IP system, being a developing country.  However, in the short period of twenty-odd years, China has formulated numerous laws and regulations, judicial interpretations and department rules pursuant to the international rules for intellectual property right, thus a complete IP legal system that conforms to the international rules is taking shape.  Meanwhile, China has acceded to almost all the international conventions and treaties pertaining to intellectual property right.  Abided by the international obligations, the country is also playing a constructive role in the activities and consultations initiated by the IP international organizations.

 

At present, China has completed all the domestic formalities for the accession of the two treaties on international networking and will become a full member in June this year. Wu Yi said that in order to realize the development objectives of establishing an innovative-type of a nation, the Chinese government has upgraded IP as a national strategy.  Consequently, the National Intellectual Property Protection Working Group was created and a series of important measures were taken to enhance the intensity of law enforcement.

 

China has promulgated judicial interpretations on two occasions, thus reducing the criminal law enforcement threshold by a large margin.  The intellectual property division is set up in the Chinese court system. The IP infringement offense reporting and the complaint service centers were set up in the country's 50 big and medium-sized cities.  Numerous regulations on accelerating the transfer of administrative law enforcement cases to criminal law enforcement cases were formulated.  The regulations that require all the produced and market computers to pre-install original operation system was promulgated.  A series of special actions for the protection of intellectual property right and cracking down on infringement  acts were launched throughout the country.  And the "Action Plan for the Protection of Intellectual Property" in 2006 and 2007 were consecutively published, which included 438 specific measures.

 

Besides, the Chinese government has greatly popularized the IP knowledge and various forms of education activities were developed across the country.  "A Publicity Week for the Protection of Intellectual Property" is held on an annual basis.  Consequently, the public's consciousness for IP protection in China has obviously been raised, thus a good atmosphere of respecting knowledge, advocating science and encouraging innovation is being created.  Wu Yi said that recently the U.S. Trade Representative's working office, while totally disregarding the huge progress attained in China, filed proceedings against China's IP issue and publications market entry issue to the WTO mechanism for the settlement of disputes under the situation that the Sino-U.S. communication and negotiation channel is effective and with constant results achieved.  This action not only contravenes the common understanding of resolving difference through dialogue as advocated by the leaders of the two countries, but also rare and for the first time in the WTO that one member nation filed two proceeding against another member nation at the same time.

 

Wu Yi said that this will certainly exert serious impacts on the bilateral IP cooperation under the framework of the Sino-U.S. Economic and Trade Joint Committee, but also harm the already established relationship between both sides in the aspect of publications market access.  China will make active response to the proceedings and stick out for the game pursuant to the related rules of the WTO.

2007-06-01

2007-06-01