Guangdong detain hundreds in counterfeiting crackdown

Police across Guangdong province have detained 834 suspects involved in 794 suspected cases of producing and selling counterfeit food and medicine in the first half of the year.

"The figures have seen a year-on-year increase of 187 percent and 140 percent respectively," said He Guangping, deputy director-general of the Guangdong provincial department of public security.

"That indicates fighting counterfeit items is still a long-term and tough task for police in Guangdong in the coming months," He told a press conference in the Guangdong provincial capital on Wednesday.

Despite years of efforts fighting counterfeiting, subtle, family-based supply chains have made investigating and uncovering fakes more difficult for police.

Guangdong, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administration regions, has been the main battlefront of fighting such counterfeiting for years, He said.

According to He, police in Guangzhou seized 14,400 units of counterfeit Shalina ointment and 65 boxes containing another 26,000 containers of fake Caro White lotion after they busted a cross-border counterfeit sales gang in a special operation launched in April.

Three suspects were detained during the operation, including the suspected gang leaders, Fu Ren and Liu Yudeng.

Fu, 33, comes from Ningxiang, Hunan province, while Liu, 29, is a native of Henan province.

The pair admitted they purchased the fake products from Yiwu, Zhejiang province, and planned to sell them abroad at a high profit.

The fake ointments and lotions were seized as they were being sent to Nigeria from the southern metropolis.

Police also seized more than 300 boxes of counterfeit spiced chicken broth, plus many fake trademark labels and tags and related packaging materials in an action in Guangzhou's Baiyun district on July 4.

Chen Lincheng, 36, and his wife Lu Shaohong, 33, both from Jieyang in east Guangdong, after being detained, admitted to having produced more than 1,800 boxes of the fake broth and other seasonings since last September.

Many of the counterfeit products were sold to Guangzhou and nearby cities of Foshan, Zhongshan and Zhuhai.

Dongguan police also seized a sizeable amount of fake edible oil after they swooped on a secret production site on June 12.

He said police in Guangdong uncovered 1,200 counterfeiting cases between January and June of this year, up 20.5 percent from the same period of the previous year.

In those cases, 1,823 suspects were detained, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.

In addition to food and medicines, the goods seized included kitchen knives, electrical appliances, computer parts, clothing, shoes, shampoo, cosmetics, watches, car parts, bags, toys, batteries and other daily use items, he said.

He said many companies including P&G, Perfect (China) Co and Yangjiang Shibazi Co have seen large increases in their sales after the counterfeiting crackdown.

Despite their achievements, Guangdong police will not lower their vigilance in the coming months, He said, hinting that more special operations could be launched to help bring the province's counterfeiting under control in the second half of the year.

He promised to further expand cooperation with counterparts in Hong Kong and Macao and other provinces, municipalities and regions on the mainland in the fight against counterfeiting.

Wang Chenming, a Guangzhou office worker, said police and relevant departments should take more concrete and effective measures to crack down on the counterfeiting which has been active in the province for years.