Campaign Targets IPR Infringement, Censors Political and Religious Publications

Chinese authorities seized more than 58 million illegal publications and four pirated DVD production lines during a 100-Day Anti-Piracy Campaign launched by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Public Security, and eight other central government agencies, according to a November 27 Xinhua report (via the People's Daily Web site). According to the report, authorities investigated more than 10,000 cases of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement and sentenced at least two individuals to life imprisonment during the campaign, which began on July 15 and concluded on October 25.

As the Congressional-Executive Commission on China noted in its 2006 Annual Report, IPR infringement in China remains rampant, due in part to the failure of the Chinese government to introduce criminal penalties sufficient to deter infringement, high thresholds that the Chinese government uses to determine the existence of infringement, and resistance from law enforcement authorities to shut down large-scale commercial infringers that sustain local economies. In September 2006, China's state-run media reported that almost half of all books, films, music CDs, and software sold in China in 2005 were pirated.

The targets of the campaign included not only IPR infringers, but also people who attempted to publish without government permission, or to publish political and religious information and opinions with which the government disagrees. By September, authorities had confiscated some 616,000 unauthorized newspapers and periodicals, according to a September 16 People's Daily report (in Chinese) citing information from the Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications Task Force. The government also seized 303,000 publications it deemed to have harmed social stability, endangered state security, or incited ethnic separatism, according to the report. A September 17 People's Daily article (in Chinese) also reported that authorities seized over 3,000 illegal political publications in Henan province. In addition, authorities in Tonglu county, Zhejiang province imposed severe punishments for illegal political and religious publications, as well as publications containing "superstitious" content, according to an October 7 report (in Chinese) on a Web site affiliated with the Hangzhou Daily.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provide that people enjoy the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. As the CECC noted in section V(a) Special Focus for 2006: Freedom of Expression of its 2006 Annual Report, however, the Chinese government imposes a strict licensing scheme on all newspaper, magazine, and book publishing and printing (public and private, for-profit and non-profit). No one may legally publish a book, newspaper, or magazine in China unless they have a license from the General Administration of Press and Publication, and to obtain a license potential publishers must meet certain substantive conditions, including having a government sponsor and a minimum amount of registered capital. The government also uses discretionary and extralegal powers to impose content-based restrictions on the publication of information and ideas that conflict with the Party's political and religious orthodoxy or that threaten its control over political and religious ideology. Rules governing the publication of newspapers and magazines also establish post-publication content screening and review systems to monitor compliance with the content-based restrictions. These content-based restrictions on political opinion and religious literature are neither prescribed by law nor necessary to protect a legitimate state interest.