Crime And The Black Market In Modern Day China :: essays research papers

Crime and the Black Market in Modern Day mainland China     With a population of approximately 1,203,097,268 people , China, who hasthe worlds largest population, also has the worlds fastest increment blackmarket and crime problem. In China, crime rates start been climbing an estimated10 percent a year since the early eighties . China is a country that is currentlyexperiencing both political and frugal instability. Economic reforms thathave been put in place by the giving medication have only widened the income gap,creating a middle class with money and a lower class of newly poor. With anever increasing size in this gap of income distribution and the relative ease ofmaking money through with(predicate) black market sales, it is no wonder more and more Chineseare turning to a life of commonly accepted and fat crime.     doubting Thomas Jefferson once said, "he who receives an idea from me, receivesinstruction himself without lessenin g mine as he who lights his taper at mine,receives light without darkening me." Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson lived ina different condemnation. He lived in a time when piracy was non as evident and knowing property was not worth so much. In China, the largest crime whichis currently occurring is quick-witted piracy. different the pirates of old whoplundered the merchant vessels and ports of the South China Sea, modern twenty-four hour periodpirates are more interested in illegal replication of intellectual rights. Frommusic compact discs to computer software to films to best selling novels, TheChinese black market is a virtual warehouse of "plundered goods". It isestimated that thither are at least thirty illegal high tech factories in Chinathat can churn out over 20,000 optic discs a day. Americas Microsoftestimates that 98 out of every 100 of its software programs macrocosm used in Chinaare illegal copies . Because of these statistics, and because this only a mountsto a small amount of the estimated piracy which occurs in China, programmanufacturers, worldwide, are lobbying the Chinese government to impose stricterstandards and greater restrictions upon the distribution and sale of illegalintellectual rights. In July of 1996, investigators from Microsoft led Chineseofficials to a plant near Guilin in Guanxi Province, where they found 5700bootleg windows CDs. The plant had four production lines. Three of them wereoperated virtually the clock. It was estimated that this particular plant churnedout 20,000 illegal copies of Microsoft programs a day. A dole out report toCongress from the Trade office cites China as the blister violator of UnitedStates - copyrighted intellectual property. The report, which came days after