Chinese Counterfeiting Culture

Writing in the Asia Times, Peter Navarro takes a fascinating look at factors contributing to the pervasive Chinese counterfeiting problem. Using the problem of faulty chargers causing fires and electrical hazard, Navarro catalogues the widespread problem, from chargers to handbags to counterfeit drugs. Ending Chinese counterfeiting would be almost impossible, as he cites estimates that counterfeiting activity accounts for 20% of the total Chinese GDP growth, with significant curtailment likely to cause economic instability or collapse. But the problem is even deeper - it is cultural. The kicker:

These economic and political motives for Chinese piracy are strongly reinforced by a set of cultural norms that flow from an amoral fusion of a 60-year old Maoism and a centuries-old Confucianism. The core problem is that the government of the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 on the abolition of private property. Thus, there exists several generations of Chinese executives who truly believe that, as former US ambassador James Lilley has noted, "any technology in the world is the property of the masses."

When one adds to this Maoist version of property rights a large dose of Confucianism, the counterfeiting and piracy picture comes much more sharply into focus. Since ancient times, Confucianism has revered, rather than reviled, imitation. The result is the perfect economic, political, and cultural laboratory for a counterfeiting and piracy boom.

Read the whole thing.