‍China's attitude toward the protection of intellectual property (IP) rights is clear and firm, according to a white paper released this week by China's State Council, which poses a direct rebuttal against a myriad of accusations by the current US administration.

The white paper, titled "The Facts and China's Position on China-US Trade Friction" points to China's efforts to protect IP rights in sectors of legislation, law enforcement and the judiciary.

First, in terms of legislation, China has built a high-standard legal framework for IP in a short period of time, compared with the decades or more developed countries used to do the same.

The paper quoted late director-general of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Arpad Bogsch, as saying "China has accomplished all this at a speed unmatched in the history of intellectual property protection."

In 2013, China amended the Trademark Law, raising the penalty limit for IP violations from 500,000 to three million yuan. In 2014, work began to amend the Patent Law, measures proposed include stricter penalties for rights infringement and special protection for digital patents. In 2017, China amended the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, which improves security over business' secrets.

The second sector highlighted by the white paper is law enforcement. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, China's efforts to protect IP rights is improving.

China's payment of licensing fees and royalties for the use of foreign technology has seen a fourfold increase over the last decade, reaching 28.6 billion US dollars in 2017 and ranking fourth in the world. China ranks second globally on the scale of licensing fees paid for technology used within its national borders, second only to the US.

Shen Changyu, head of the National IP Administration, said China's Intellectual Property Usage Fees of imports and exports show a simultaneous and rapid growth, with exports increasing by over 60 percent and imports by over 50 percent compared with the previous year.

Thirdly, in the area of the judiciary, the paper says China is increasingly being selected as the forum of choice for non-Chinese companies to litigate IP disputes, and a significant number of both the plaintiffs and defendants in Beijing IP courts are foreigners. He Hua, deputy commissioner of China's State Intellectual Property Office said China gives equal protection to domestic and foreign IP rights.

He added that there were 650,000 innovation patent cases and 840,000 trademark applications cases by foreign applicants in China over the past five years – a sign of China's safe and stable IPR environment.