Posted on 06/21/2002 11:42:51 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
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Many things in China are not what they seem. That includes, it turns out, the policemen. Authorities in Beijing have exposed 10,000 phoney police officers over the past five years and uncovered some 320,000 fake police vehicles, uniforms, badges and weapons. The report comes only as a minor shock to Beijing residents who, like people all over China, have grown accustomed to a cornucopia of fakes - from software to state statistics and university degrees. The idea that thousands of civilians have dressed up as police officers, and swaggered around issuing fines and requisitioning vehicles, will not surprise the populace. The green-suited officers of the public security bureau wield a virtually omnipotent power. They can detain people without warrants, fine people without giving receipts, order houses to be demolished, eat in restaurants free and violate the traffic rules. Official exhortations to the police force to be more polite appear largely to have fallen on deaf ears, along with orders to purge corruption from police ranks. It is common in Beijing to hear restaurant or club owners complaining that they have to give police their "squeeze" - effectively a protection fee - every month. The authorities also connive in much of the falsification and counterfeiting evident in many parts of Beijing and throughout China. Shops selling pirated CDs, DVDs, and VCDs do a roaring trade just a few doors down from a district court and opposite a barracks of the People's Armed Police near Ritan park in the centre of Beijing. "I have my connections. If you don't know the police, you can't do much around here," said the owner of the shop, who declined to be identified. The law enforcement authorities wink at several other abuses. Yiwu, a hub for fake products in central China, is notorious for its fake counterfeit-busting raids. Law enforcement officers, often hired by foreign companies, go to a counterfeit factory and raid it. It all looks real, but a few days later the pirates hauled away into detention are back - apparently having struck a deal. Industrial piracy is also rife. The Chery, the fastest-selling car in China this year, is a virtual replica of a Volkswagen model, the Jetta.
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