China's IP Problem

The lack of respect of intellectual property rights by Chinese governments particularly at the local level and in many respects of many locals, probably already costs China a lot of money. I can understand where it comes from - being dirt poor as much of the country has been, it's difficult to convince people in China (let alone from any developing country) that something as intangible as intellectual property rights have value. They just want things cheap.

This however is beyond appalling. Completely brazen, the counterfeiting of ABRO adhesives is frightening in how much support the counterfeiter has received from within China and how much success he has had in rallying nationalist sentiment when it seems absolutely clear that what he has done is wrong. What is particularly remarkable is that the fight isn't over a consumer brand. Because of the industrial nature of the product, it surprises me that presumably more sophisticated buyers aren't fighting back against distributors of the fake product (but maybe they are?). Also covered here.