LV for Everyone
Many, if not most, of the clothes, electronics and household goods for sale on Western shelves are made in China. According to China Today, sixty to seventy percent of formal eveningwear supplied to the world is produced in a single factory in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province (1)! The figures are difficult to grasp, but their effects on shopping in China are immediately obvious: Chinese workers learn to make the real thing, and then they start making counterfeits by the ton.
Any of China’s big cities has fakes markets where it’s possible to buy a “Luis Vuitton” purse for $10 or less, sprawling electronics markets with the latest technology at a discount, and DVD shops with the latest movies on sale days after they come out in theaters. These places do a better than brisk trade; they’re packed with shoppers, foreign and Chinese alike, day in and day out. According to one website it’s estimated that one in five Chinese women owns a fake handbag, and that the majority of these are “Louis Vuitton” (2), but no source is cited.
So many fakes are made and sold in China, not to mention those that are smuggled out, that designers and governments have begun to sit up and take notice. According to Forbes.com Lacoste sued Beijing’s most famous fakes market, the Silk Market, for 100,000 Yuan in 2006. Nor is Lacoste the only designer to have sought restitution. Chanel, Prada, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci have all sued the Silk Market in their turn (3). Even the US government has filed suit: in April 2007, the US filed cases against China with the WTO, contending that Beijing’s enforcement of anti-piracy laws has been lax, and that American companies are losing billions of dollars a year to the sale of pirated DVDs, music CDs as a result (4).
Whether or not enforcement has been lax, Chinese people themselves can’t be blamed for not objecting to the fakes trade. Millions of Chinese make their livings either making or selling fakes, and millions more make fashion statements wearing them. Indeed, many brand name items actually cost more in Mainland China than they do in the West, making it even more impossible for ordinary Chinese people to afford them. Chinese people ask the question, “Who benefits from strict enforcement of anti-piracy laws?” The answer they come up with is, “Not us.” (5) And so the sale of shamelessly faked Prada purses and flagrantly stolen copies of the latest movies continues apace.
The Sinister Side of the Bargain
If that were all there was to the counterfeiting industry, it might not be considered dangerous; thievery yes, but not dangerous. But counterfeiting in China isn’t just limited to clothing and downloadable media, and its effects aren’t limited to the loss of money.
In China counterfeiters make fake everything, right down to pharmaceutical drugs and milk powder, and when people mistakenly take these products, the result can be illness or even death. In 2004, 13 babies in Anhui province died of malnutrition because their mothers unknowingly fed them fake milk powder (6). If that were not shocking enough, the World Health Organization estimates that annual deaths caused by fake drugs could run into the hundreds of thousands worldwide (7).
While the central government in Beijing is making very serious efforts to stop the fake drug trade, including arresting some high level officials who took bribes and thus bear much of the responsibility, experts are skeptical as to whether or not anything can stop fake drugs from getting onto the market (7).
Unfortunately, it may be that the only way for piracy to decrease in China is for enough time to pass. As it stands, the counterfeiters will never go away as long as the real deal remains so entirely unaffordable for Chinese, and the counterfeit drug makers won’t disappear until officials stop taking bribes and quality control methods improve.
Reference
1) chinatoday.com
2) fasion-era.com
3) forbes.com
4) amatechtel.com
5) nwsource.com
6) chinaeconomicreview.com
7) nytimes.com
