Five Departments Launch Nationwide Printing Market Clean-up: New Printing Enterprise Approvals Frozen from September 2001 to February 2002

The notice went out to the press and publication bureaus, public security departments (bureaus), administrations for industry and commerce, quality and technical supervision bureaus, and local offices of the “Eliminating Pornography” and “Combating Illegal Publications” working groups in every province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government.

To carry out the State Council's Provisions on Rectifying and Standardizing the Order of the Market Economy and its General Office's Notice on Further Rectifying and Standardizing the Order of the Cultural Market, and to cut off at source the route by which illegal publications and counterfeit or substandard goods reach the market, five central bodies — the General Administration of Press and Publication, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the Office of the National “Eliminating Pornography” and “Combating Illegal Publications” Working Group — jointly resolved to mount a concentrated nationwide clean-up and standardization of the printing market. The details are set out below.

I. Guiding Ideology

The drive is guided by Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of the “Three Represents,” seizes the current opening created by efforts to tidy up the market economy, and rests on the Regulations on the Administration of the Printing Industry and other laws and rules. Its watchwords are cutting total capacity, upgrading the structure, tightening oversight and enforcing strict standards. Crackdown and prevention, rectification and standardization, and support for the strong alongside elimination of the weak are to go hand in hand, so that the printing industry can develop in a healthy and orderly way.

II. Work Objectives

Six months of concentrated enforcement are meant to close unlicensed print shops and those holding incomplete licences, wipe out illegal printing dens, break up criminal gangs, investigate and handle major cases, and punish unlawful printing practices, with priority given to key areas so that measurable, phased results are delivered. Over the following two to three years, the industry's fragmented, bloated pattern of low-level duplication is to be visibly changed, major adjustments made to its total volume, structure and geographic layout, and the printing market order brought to a fundamental improvement.

III. Main Tasks

(1) Close unlicensed and unregistered print shops. Their specialized tools and printing production equipment are to be confiscated and sealed in centralized storage. Equipment on the state's mandatory elimination list will be destroyed by remelting under on-site supervision by the competent departments, while the remainder is to be sold at public auction. Among printing enterprises with incomplete licences, only the very few that operate to standard, use advanced equipment and processes and employ well-qualified staff — and that pass rectification within a set deadline and meet requirements — may have their licences completed; every other one is to be shut down.

(2) Investigate and punish unlawful printing and production. Authorities must dig deep and check thoroughly, pursuing major illegal-printing cases, and deal with the full weight of the law, swiftly and severely, with the units and individuals behind unauthorized reprints of overseas political publications, as well as with gangs that forge documents or print infringing and counterfeit trademarks and product quality labels in the manufacture and sale of fakes. A number of ringleaders and repeat offenders are to be severely punished. Case handling itself becomes the lever: trace the source, follow the distribution trail, and dismantle the underground printing networks entirely.

(3) Make key regions a priority. Areas where major illegal-printing cases keep erupting are to receive sustained, determined attention. The focus falls on districts surrounding publication markets that the 2001 concentrated action plan for “Eliminating Pornography” and “Combating Illegal Publications” required to be closed, and on areas where unlicensed or partially licensed print shops are clustered. Nationally, Shaodong in Hunan, Cangnan in Zhejiang and Tongzhou in Beijing are designated as key areas for this phase. Each locality should also set its own priority areas according to local conditions and file them with the Office of the National Leading Group for Rectifying and Standardizing the Printing Market Order.

(4) Downsize printing enterprises that fail to qualify. Businesses that do not meet the qualification conditions for printing enterprises are to be consolidated through alliances, mergers or shareholding arrangements; those still below standard after rectification and consolidation will not be permitted to carry on printing operations. Localities must follow the macro-control plan for the industry's total volume, structure and layout and work hard to cut the number of non-compliant printers.

In non-key areas, localities may decide their own rectification methods and steps in light of local realities, provided the campaign's objectives and tasks are accomplished. Once the concentrated phase ends, each locality must submit a work report to the Office of the National Leading Group for Rectifying and Standardizing the Printing Market Order, together with a summary table of rectification results (see Attachment 2) and a summary table of basic information on printing enterprises (see Attachment 3).

The concentrated rectification period runs from September 2001 to February 2002. No approvals for the establishment of new printing enterprises of any kind will be granted during that time.

IV. Organizational Leadership

The General Administration of Press and Publication, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the Office of the National “Eliminating Pornography” and “Combating Illegal Publications” Working Group jointly constitute the National Leading Group for Rectifying and Standardizing the Printing Market Order (see Attachment 1), which is charged with guiding, coordinating, supervising and inspecting the national rectification effort.

The press and publication, public security, industry and commerce administration, and quality inspection departments of each province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government, together with the local “Eliminating Pornography” and “Combating Illegal Publications” working group offices, jointly constitute the National Leading Group for Rectifying and Standardizing the Printing Market Order (see Attachment 1), responsible for guiding, coordinating, supervising and inspecting rectification work across the national printing industry.

The same press and publication, public security, industry and commerce administration and quality inspection departments, working with those provincial-level working group offices, also form a leading group for rectifying and standardizing the printing market order, which leads, coordinates and inspects the clean-up within its own jurisdiction.

August 22, 2001

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362034.html