Trade Secret Theft, Industrial Espionage, and the China Threat

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5

Chinese Product Piracy

and Counterfeiting*

From almost the beginning of recorded history, China has served as a provider of desired goods.

Marco Polo traveled the world to bring back goods made in the Orient. Today, China’s economy has

grown to include the manufacture of many different products, including clothing, purses, software,

computers, and movies. While just as desired as the goods of Marco Polo’s day, these modern goods

often are not the legitimate product of the original source; instead, these are goods that are copied,

reverse engineered and—with limited investment and no payment to the creator—sold for a neg-

ligible price to