Beijing Olympics: Pirated goods on sale

Almost one year ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese authorities have vowed to do their utmost to crackdown on counterfeit Olympics merchandise.

The famous silk street market in Beijing is already selling official Olympics merchandise including clothing, shoes, handicrafts and dolls for a fraction of what they would cost in most other countries.

However, fake Olympic goods are also already being sold at underground stations and other popular sites in Beijing.

Olympic officials and local authorities are promising a strong crackdown.

"The Olympics souvenirs can only be sold in authorised stores. We will crackdown on fake products, no matter if they are sold in stands, streets or department stores," said Jiang Guohong, Department Chief of the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, on June 12.

Deputy Director of the Publicity Bureau for Beijing's Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG), Wang Hui, said the committee's position on piracy was clear.

"BOCOG's position on IPR (intellectual property rights) is consistent and clear. We are strongly determined to protect the property rights of the Beijing Olympics. We strongly support actions to crackdown on piracy," he said.

The Beijing security bureau keeps a collection of counterfeit items from their seizures, with products ranging from whiskey and tobacco to name brand clothing and watches.

Officials say that more and more of their seizures now include fake Olympic goods. Caps and t-shirts are easy to copy, but the mascot dolls have been on top of the list of seizures in recent months.

The Beijing Olympic Committee plans to set up more officially-licensed stores, thinking that if official items are more readily available then people will be less likely to buy pirated goods.

The merchandise at official stores is two to three times more expensive than the fakes, so some consumers may still tempted to buy non-official items.

People appeared to have mixed views in Beijing on whether counterfeit merchandise should be available to buyers.

Some Chinese residents are angry with those involved in pirating goods, worrying that they may damage China's image.

"The Olympics are a grand event involving a lot of countries in the world. Fake products are not good for the image of Beijing during the Olympics," said Ms. Wang, a Beijing resident, on Friday.

However, one British tourist said he was not concerned about the prevalence of pirated goods.

"You've got a building full of fake products here, so what are you going to do? Put a lot of people out of business I suppose," said Jeff Downs, a British tourist.

About 550-thousand foreigners are expected to travel to China to watch the Olympics, starting on 8 August 2008, as well as an estimated 22-thousand journalists.