China to take on piracy

China pledged to crack down on counterfeiting and piracy of US goods after a meeting with Bush administration officials. After meeting with US Commerce Secretary Don Evans and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, Vice Premier Wu Yi told reporters that China will lower the criminal threshold for intellectual property violations. The meeting was part of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. The commission announced that China had agreed to increase efforts to bring criminal charges against accused counterfeiters and align Chinese copyright laws with international copyright treaties regarding the exchange and distribution of pirated works over the Internet. US publishers estimate that they lost more than US$1.8 billion in mainland revenue in 2003 to piracy.