Piracy War on China might backfire

THE US GOVERNMENT'S attempts to export its country's obsession with patent rights and copyright law to China has met with a stiff rebuff from the mandarins of Peking.

The US has gone to the World Trade Organisation on behalf of the various software companies, Hollywood Studios and record companies over piracy behind the bamboo curtain.

But according to Reuters, Vice Premier Wu Yi said that China has made great strides in protecting patents and copyrights and if the US pushes it too far too fast it could 'badly damage' cooperation.

Wu told an intellectual property forum in Beijing that the United States Trade Representative, the USTR, has totally ignored the massive strides China has made. It has also ignored an agreement to talk about such matter before talking unilateral action. He pointed out that never before had a WTO member simultaneously mounted two cases against another country.

Wu threatened that such action would 'harm' cooperation over market access issues. The US government has a slight problem in dealing with China over this matter. If it doesn't do anything the record companies and big movie studios will start pulling the huge amounts of cash out of government campaign coffers. If it pulls the tail of the Tiger, US companies could be shut out of the booming Chinese market and lose billions.

More here.