Hong Kong-based Asian Political Risk Consultants released a ranking of the state of intellectual property protection in Asia on Wednesday, with China ranked third.

Indonesia, Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and India each rank among the top five worst infringers of intellectual property rights, while Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea are the best in terms of protection, respectively.

China has long been accused of intellectual property infringement. Chen Shirong, the BBC's China affairs editor, believes that this drop in the ranking does not mean that China's situation in protecting intellectual property rights has improved significantly.

more stealthy, more advanced

An important reason, he said, is that some intellectual property violations in China have shifted from street vendors and home-based workshops to more hidden production sectors, while in Indonesia, pirated goods are ubiquitous on the streets.

A typical example of piracy in early China is Beijing's Xiushui East Street, which sells fake brand names.

Now, more and more companies bring foreign technology and use it to bid with foreign companies.

The size of China's economy and the "ability of some major Chinese companies to use pirated technology to compete in overseas markets" make it a frequent target of anti-piracy investigations, said Asia Political Risk Consultants.

In contrast, countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia are not as large and capable of piracy as big Chinese companies, the company said, not enough to cause global damage.

But the protection of intellectual property rights in these countries is very poor, the infrastructure in this area is lacking, and the government is inefficient.

Even though the anti-infringement and anti-stealing treasure laws are very detailed, ineffective enforcement makes these laws useless.

Surprisingly

Chen Shirong said that piracy is also an industry, and the government actually sometimes turns a blind eye to piracy.

The Asia Political Ventures ranking is based on a survey of 1,285 foreign managers conducted between June and mid-August. On a scale of 0-10, countries with higher scores have lower levels of intellectual property protection.

Agence France-Presse said the ranking largely reflects the findings of the global computer software industry.

The industry giants are surprised by how easily pirated movies and software are available across Asia.

While China has taken tougher measures to combat piracy, the government's strategy of using market access as a lever to gain access to technology transfers could lead to more friction and conflict.