Chinese government not involved in IPR trade for advanced technologies

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The Chinese government does not participate in its companies' buying or exporting IPRs abroad, nor does it instruct its companies to buy American ones to acquire advanced technologies, said Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen at a press conference for a white paper titled "China's Position on the China-U.S. Economic and Trade Consultations" on Sunday.

China has done a lot of work in IPR protection and has become an increasingly important IP power. It trades IPRs with other countries via purchase and export, while making its own invention patents as well, said Wang.

In terms of purchases, China paid 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in IP royalties in 2001, but 35.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, a nearly 19-fold increase, of which 8.64 billion U.S. dollars were paid to the U.S., or nearly a quarter of the country's total IP purchases.

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen. /SCIO Photo

The country has done vast amounts of work in IPR legislation, judicature and law enforcement, leading to an increase in China's own IPRs as well as a positive phenomenon that foreign enterprises are willing to sell IPRs to China.

However, the Chinese government is not involved in its enterprises' behavior to purchase IPRs from or export to other countries.

"All what the Chinese government does is to create a sound environment that respects and protects IPRs, so that it advocates the generation and better protection of IPRs, promoting the development of an innovative economy," said Wang.

It is the Chinese enterprises themselves that decide their investment overseas.

"What projects to invest, what to buy or not to buy completely rely on the companies. They are responsible for their profits and losses," said Wang. "The Chinese government does not participate in enterprises' specific business practices, and won't direct or require them what to invest or purchase."

(Cover via VCG)