China's good reputation regarding copyright inviolations is spoiled, since it is said to be the world's main victim of compact disc piracy. Even if China has done a good job inside its borders, hundreds of millions of fake CDs and DVDs enter the country from outside of its borders, winding up in Chinese shops and hurting its reputation abroad.

In the period since 1996 Chinese customs have confiscated a total of 300 million pirated CDs, the vast majority of them coming from abroad.State media reported previously that smugglers often transport four million CDs at a time on board cargo ships, ensuring that Chinese audiences can enjoy all the latest movies and music.

In a major recent case, police in southern Guangdong province confiscated 4.77 million smuggled discs, probably originate in Hong Kong and China now cooperate with Hong Kong authorities to crack them down.

If this continues China will probably face problems with the World Trade Organization regarding intellectual property rights protection.