Between the Hammer and the Block: China's Intellectual Property Rights in the Network Age

Since China adopted the policy of economic openness and reform in the late 1970s, developed countries have imposed tremendous pressure on Chinese intellectual property issues in order to protect their crucial interests in this huge market and manufacturing base. Those rounds of Sino-American Intellectual Property Negotiations illustrate how the Chinese government was forced to upgrade domestic intellectual property protection in exchange for foreign investment and export market. However, high-level protection for intellectual property that is inevitably at the expense of the interests of the domestic consumers and industry encounters strong resistance domestically. The conflicts between the external pressure and internal resistance become intensified in the network environment. The Chinese government, in respond to the domestic outcry, has to lessen the harshness in the intellectual property enforcement. As a result, the Chinese intellectual property system is distorted by various inconsistencies and expediencies. This paper argues that the current situation is in neither party's interest - foreign intellectual property rights cannot be genuinely protected, nor can domestic demand be genuinely reflected. Aiming at sustainable development, China needs a long-term intellectual property strategy that is both commensurate with domestic social and economic development and reasonably responsive to the international norms and tendencies. To reach this goal, instead of isolating itself from the outside world, China should actively participate in international dialogues and negotiations within or beyond the WTO system, pushing for the rationalization of international trade and the intellectual property regime.