China is apparently anxious to show that it is willing to take other people's intellectual property seriously, rather than just outright taking it. As such, its legal system has started giving counterfeiters a hard time and hard time. Most notable among them was the "Chinese Sex Pill King" who recently received a stiff sentence for a massive counterfeit Viagra operation:
A Chinese man was jailed for eight years for making 60 tonnes of fake sex pills, state media reported on Friday as the country cracks down on pirates who copy nearly every product. Xi Yongli and his accomplices sold 21.8 million yuan ($2.78 million) of America Number One, Male Exclusive, Great Big Brother -- the popular Chinese name for Viagra -- and other pills and ingredients promising men vibrant sexual lives, a court in central China's Anhui province found, Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Xi and his gang received sentences spanning from a little over a year to eight years for making and selling medicine without a licence, selling counterfeits, and illegally processing Sildenafil Citrate -- the key ingredient in Viagra, Pfizer Inc.'s top selling male potency pill. They were based in Fuyang, a city in Anhui notorious for selling fakes, including baby milk powder without any nutrition that killed at least 13 babies in 2004.
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