The Word Thieves

Chinese Fight Copyright Violations

By staff reporter LI WUZHOU

AFTER a legal tussle lasting four years Wang Guangxiang, a reporter with a local newspaper in Jiangsu Province, eventually won an apology and compensation from the Hong Kong publisher who juggled and refitted his articles for use in a book of patch-worked journalism with dubious conclusions. Wang's case marks the first victory of a mainland journalist in a Special Administrative Region's courtroom, and sends an encouraging message to other media workers in the nation who have balked at undertaking protracted and baffling judicial procedures when their rights are infringed.

Story Theft

It all began with Gu Chengbing, a business baron in Nantong, Jiangsu, in the 1990s who struck gold raising eels. His ballooning farm empire was thirsty for capital, and he got lots of it the easy way – swindling RMB 1.2 billion worth of legitimate loans by bribing bank officials. The fraudster caused a bad debt of RMB 180 million and was busted in 1997. Also convicted were several local officials, including three division chiefs. The sum of money involved made it one of the six biggest financial crimes of the year, and as such it was broadly covered by the media.

After six months of research and interviews by newsroom director Wang Guangxiang and his staff at the city newspaper Nandong Daily, the paper published a series of report in 1998 under the title "An Anti-corruption Storm," which was picked up by more than 100 print media across China including one of the most read – People's Daily.

The buzz around the eel farmer's case soon fizzled out, and reporter Wang moved on to other news. Without Wang having the least idea, the articles were included in a book published in Hong Kong – under another man's name and with a title different from Wang's series. The work of plagiary was distributed in several countries and regions out of the mainland.

Everything comes out in the wash. During a business trip to Malaysia in 2004 Wang had a stopover in the Singapore airport for his plane transfer. Roaming through its bookstore to kill time, he was surprised to come across his reports on the Gu Chengbing's case in a book titled Financial Crimes by Senior CPC Officials, which carried the sanguine catch line "in words and photos, saturated with blood and tears."

The book, published by Ha Fai Yi Publication Limited, twisted the reports by Wang and his colleagues at the Nantong Daily while plagiarizing 90 percent of the content. The series of articles were given a new title: "A Fisherman Topples Eight Bankers." No doubt this was to emphasize the book's theme of official corruption, and intended to smear the image of China's officialdom in general. Wang Mingliang was credited as the author, and photos were not credited at all.