China’s campaign against counterfeit goods has entered a new phase of intensity, driven by the explosive growth of cross-border e-commerce and live-streaming sales, which accounted for 34% of the nation’s retail IP infringement cases in 2024. With the General Administration of Customs (GAC) reporting seizures of 52 million counterfeit items valued at RMB 6.7 billion (US$923 million) in 2023—a 19% year-on-year increase—the government is deploying advanced technologies and legislative reforms to combat increasingly sophisticated infringement networks exploiting digital platforms and global supply chains.
The 2024 revisions to China’s E-Commerce Law, effective January 2025, impose stricter due diligence obligations on platform operators under Article 42, requiring real-time monitoring of high-risk categories like luxury goods, electronics, and cosmetics. Platforms failing to remove counterfeit listings within 48 hours of notification now face fines up to 10% of annual revenue, a deterrent already applied in the Hangzhou Market Regulatory Bureau’s RMB 48 million (US$6.6 million) penalty against a major live-streaming platform for repeated non-compliance. Parallel amendments to the Anti-Unfair Competition Law empower authorities to freeze assets of counterfeiters operating across multiple jurisdictions, addressing evasion tactics observed in 63% of cross-regional cases in 2023.
Customs enforcement has been revolutionized through blockchain-based tracking systems. The GAC’s “Smart Border 2025” initiative, integrated with Alibaba’s and JD.com’s logistics databases, automatically flags suspicious shipments using AI image recognition, reducing inspection time by 72% while increasing seizure accuracy to 91%. This system intercepted 12,000 packages containing counterfeit semiconductor chips in Q1 2025 alone, safeguarding domestic manufacturers like SMIC against imitation components infiltrating production lines.
Judicial precedents are hardening penalties for systemic infringement. The Supreme People’s Court’s 2024 guidelines mandate imprisonment for counterfeiters causing public harm, exemplified by the Shanghai Third Intermediate Court’s sentencing of a 23-member syndicate to 8–15 years for distributing fake COVID-19 test kits through Douyin and Taobao. Civil litigation trends show courts increasingly awarding punitive damages based on infringers’ global revenue, as seen in the RMB 320 million (US$44 million) judgment against a Guangzhou-based network selling counterfeit luxury watches across 18 Amazon storefronts.
Cross-border coordination is expanding under multilateral frameworks. China’s participation in the World Customs Organization’s IPM Shield Program has enabled joint operations with EU and ASEAN counterparts, dismantling 47 transnational counterfeiting rings in 2024. Domestically, the State Council’s “Double Random, One Public” mechanism now subjects 30% of export-focused SMEs to unannounced IP audits, with 12,000 businesses added to a credit blacklist for repeat violations.
Emerging challenges include AI-generated counterfeits, where deepfake technology replicates product authentication holograms. The CNIPA’s 2025 National IP Protection Plan allocates RMB 2.1 billion (US$290 million) to develop quantum encryption labels for high-value brands, while provincial authorities like Zhejiang’s Market Supervision Bureau have launched “AI vs. AI” initiatives, deploying generative adversarial networks to detect synthetic product images on e-commerce platforms.
As China transitions from manufacturing hub to innovation-driven economy, its anti-counterfeiting measures’ integration of legislative severity, technological innovation, and international cooperation reflects a strategic alignment with global IP governance norms. With draft legislation criminalizing the sale of counterfeit digital services (e.g., fake AI software subscriptions) and the GAC testing drone-based port surveillance systems, the regime aims to future-proof enforcement mechanisms against evolving infringement methodologies. The ultimate efficacy of these efforts, however, hinges on sustaining enforcement rigor amid the relentless scalability of digital counterfeit networks.