Abstract
It is well recognized that intellectual property rights (IPR) violations are at the heart of the economic conflict with China. Little agreement, however, exists about the origin and solutions for this provocation. Broadly speaking, two prescriptions have been proposed: the natural evolutionary and the rule of law views. While both have merits and add to our understanding, they do not go far enough to address the more fundamental IPR policy issue: China has benefited from a rule of law overseas and a rule through law at home, manufacturing unfair advantage to its firms, many of which are owned and/or influenced by the government. While recognizing China’s recent effort in improving IPR protection, we point out the intrinsic contradiction in the political economy of China between maintaining the one-party rule, on the one hand, and protecting IPR by an independent court, on the other. Understanding this tension in the application of IPR law can help the international community search for more effective policy options.
Highlights
In the debate on China’s intellectual property rights (IPR) violation issues, there exists a gap: no studies have delved into the political and economic system of China that fundamentally defines the issues
It is well recognized that intellectual property rights (IPR) violations are at the heart of the economic conflict with China
While recognizing China’s recent effort in improving IPR protection, we point out the intrinsic contradiction in the political economy of China between maintaining the one-party rule, on the one hand, and protecting IPR by an independent court, on the other
Summary
In the debate on China’s IPR violation issues, there exists a gap: no studies have delved into the political and economic system of China that fundamentally defines the issues. The second view, which we may term as the ‘‘rule of law’’ view, regards the systemic and severe violation of IPR in China as the result of disregarding the rule of law by the Chinese government, and the international community must pressure it to change in order to protect the global IPR market (Brander, Cui, & Vertinsky, 2017). This view implies that the rulebased countries should punish China for violating the rules and force it from the outside to comply or suffer the consequences. The debate between the natural-evolutionary and the rule-oflaw views of IPR in China can be better understood if we analyze CCP’s motivations and interests from a political economy perspective, which focuses on the preservation of the party’s monopoly as its central goal (China International Publishing Group, Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, & China Academy of Translation, 2019: 29)
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