As he held a photograph of a red Ferrari two weeks ago, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini screamed: "Look at this car. Of this model, Ferrari has produced only six cars. This is the seventh one, produced in China."

The footage of the media conference at the European Union Commission headquarters in Brussels was flashed across the world, making us wonder whether we should celebrate the deftness and technical brilliance of our Chinese brethren for matching the best in the world or hang our heads in shame for having cheated a company and violated intellectual property rights.

The media conference was held to propose punitive action against certain counterfeiters, irrespective of which country they are from. But the focus shifted to China, especially when Frattini said he was "struggling to curb illegal imports of goods" such as pirated CDs, DVDs and drugs all made in China which he said posed a danger to consumers and to legitimate businesses.

It sure is good to be in the news. But it certainly is best to be a headline-maker in positive stories. And we definitely can afford to stay away from such damaging ones.

The commission has proposed a minimum four-year jail sentence for counterfeiters to strengthen EU laws against piracy. The proposal, a first for the EU, follows a court ruling last year that empowered the commission to draft penalties to enforce EU policies.

Not many EU governments will back the move because it allows the EU's executive the right to impose jail sentences the right enjoyed exclusively by a sovereign government. But that is a different matter altogether.

Fake products are found and produced in many countries, including developed ones. From mobile phone handsets to digital cameras, from Apple iPods to BlackBerry clone RedBerry, from branded shoes and garments to PCs, Thinkpads and Notebooks, from perfumes to medicines, you name it and the world has it.

Presently, attention seems to be placed on China. Honestly, the problem is very serious in this country. But China's alleged status as "the world's plant of manufacturing" undoubtedly has contributed to the aggravation of the impression. However, it is not meaningful for us to argue how much that impression has been exaggerated. We should reflect on our own problem why so many of our nationals are negligent about intellectual property rights.

There's no good justification for buying or wearing fakes. The only possible excuse could be that some people believe they deserve the perception of owning "luxury" products without, at times, having to pay astronomical amounts to buy the real thing. They are driven by a sense of vanity. As long as vanity rules people's minds, there will be those to further that sense by providing them with fakes.

But again, as long as fakes are available in the market, there will be buyers. It's a vicious circle and the debate can go on. But I don't want to enter such discussions. All I want to say is that fakes are giving China a bad name, something that it can certainly do without.

The developed world is already wary of China's meteoric rise. It accuses us of undervaluing our goods and dumping them into other countries' markets. It imposes unjustifiable fines on "made-in-China" products. It wants to save its domestic markets, but wants us to open ours fully. We are charged with wreaking havoc on the environment. In fact, we are made the scapegoat for every possible wrong that could occur in this world.

The added burden of having to clear ourselves of the counterfeit accusations won't make our case any better. That many of the fakes' buyers are from the developed world is another story with maybe another moral.

But the moral of our story is simple: Help China by not making and buying fakes.

Email: zouhr@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/12/2006 page4)