IPR investigation report doesn't hold water

In his speech delivered at Boao Forum for Asia, President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of protecting intellectual property rights. He said China needs to better protect IPR by punishing the infringement of IPR more severely, and other countries should protect Chinese enterprises' IPR rights.

However, his words should not be misinterpreted as China bowing to pressure from the United States. Washington has launched an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 alleging violations of US companies' IPR by China.

First, the Section 301 probe report accuses China of forcing foreign companies to transfer technologies by citing some investigation reports of a few US organizations, but without disclosing information on critical factors such as the sample size, selection principle, questionnaire and time of survey.