Vice Premier, Senior Official Say China Moving to Join WIPO Internet Treaties

Liu Binjie, a deputy director of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said that China plans to ratify World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet treaties in the second half of 2006, according to an April 11 report from the China News Agency (in Chinese, via Xinhua). Liu said that the National Copyright Administration planned to submit a draft report on the legal feasibility of China's accession to international treaties to the State Council for approval in April. If the plan is approved, the State Council would submit a WIPO Internet treaty accession proposal to the National People's Congress. Liu also said the State Council currently is considering a draft Regulation on the Protection of the Right of Communication Through Information Networks, which Xinhua's English language service characterized the same day as a "prerequisite for accession to WIPO treaties." Both Xinhua reports cited Liu as saying that the State Council is expected to promulgate that regulation before the end of June 2006.

Liu's announcement coincided with an April 11 statement on the subject by Vice Premier Wu Yi at a press conference at the annual meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. Vice Premier Wu said that "It has been decided that the application for China's accession to the WIPO Internet Treaty will be submitted to China's National People's Congress before the end of June 2006."

Intellectual property infringement in China is rampant. In testimony during a March 2006 hearing on Piracy and Counterfeiting in China, Chris Israel, Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement at the U.S. Department of Commerce, said that industry reports indicate that infringement levels in China range from 85 to 95 percent for all copyrighted works. Israel also said that in 2005 the value of copyrighted works that were pirated exceeded US $2.3 billion. According to the April 11 Xinhua English language service report, copyright infringement accounted for more than 70 percent of China's intellectual property rights infringement cases, and "many" involved the Internet.

According to a U.S. Trade Representative report, during the April 2004 meeting of the bilateral Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), the Chinese government committed to ratifying and implementing the WIPO Internet Treaties "as soon as possible." According to Xinhua, Chinese officials began drafting the Regulations on the Protection of the Right of Communication Through Information Networks in October 2004. That same month, during the fourth annual transitional review of Chinese implementation of its WTO commitments, the United States noted that China's National Copyright Administration had shown increased transparency in the drafting process.

The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) were negotiated in 1996 and entered into force in 2002. They update and improve the protection of previous treaties covering copyright and related rights, to address issues raised by the advent of the Internet and new digital technologies. The WCT protects literary and artistic works such as books, computer programs, music, photography, paintings, sculpture, and films. The WPPT protects the rights of the producers of phonograms or sound recordings (e.g., records, cassettes, CDs), as well as the rights of performers whose performances are fixed in sound recordings. Both treaties require countries to provide a framework of basic rights, allowing creators to control and/or be compensated for the various ways in which their creations are used and enjoyed by others. Currently 58 countries have ratified the WCT and 57 countries have ratified the WPPT (the United States implemented the WCT and WPPT through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which became Public Law No: 105-304 in October 1998).