Its Christmas season and everyone is shopping ahead..but There's some thing called great Chinese fakeaway that's affecting most of Uk's luxury goods,and UK manufacturers are not happy about it...
From cars to designer clothing, if you name any British luxury brand, you can bet your bottom yuan that somewhere in China will be a factory producing cheap and shoddy copies. Among them is the Land Wind X7 - a car so aesthetically similar to a Range Rover you'd be forgiven for mistaking it as the real thing.
Then there's the Geely GE, a £30,000 version of the Rolls Royce Phantom sold in Britain for £250,000. Knock-off versions of the Mulberry Alexa handbag come at £20 overseas while a set of Vivienne Westwood heels, normally £120, can be yours for £18.
and this goes on and on and on....its just that this is beginning to make Luxury product makers angry!..
At first glance, it looks like a Range Rover. At second glance, it still looks like a Range Rover.
Even on third and fourth glances, you would be forgiven for thinking the car was indeed an example of a great British brand, manufactured in the West Midlands and costing around £40,000.
But walk around to the front, and you’d realise something was awry. For emblazoned across its bonnet are not the words ‘Range Rover’, but rather, ‘Land Wind’.
A Land Wind X7, to be precise — as proudly displayed at China’s recent Guangzhou motor show.
Manufactured in China, the X7 is, to all intents and purposes, a carbon copy of the Range Rover Evoque — but, at £14,000, is £26,000 cheaper.
Unsurprisingly, the chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover is livid that one of his flagship vehicles has been ripped-off so flagrantly.
Reacting to ,‘The fact that this kind of copying is ongoing in China is very disappointing,’ thundered Dr Ralf Speth to Autocar magazine.
‘The simple principle is that it is not something that should happen — the Intellectual Property is owned by Jaguar Land Rover.’
However, as Dr Speth well knows, his Range Rover, which is promoted by no less than Victoria Beckham, is not the first British vehicle to be copied by the Chinese — and it will certainly not be the last.
Over the past few years, Chinese motor manufacturers have been producing scores of ‘fake’ British cars — from phoney Rolls-Royce Phantoms to copies of Mini Coopers.
And it’s not just cars the Chinese are ripping off. For if you name any British luxury brand, you can bet your bottom yuan that somewhere in China will be a factory producing cheap and shoddy copies.
Not only that, but the products are being exported back to the West and sold here online or on dodgy market stalls.
Last year, a wholesaler from western China was jailed and fined £50,000 for selling fake Scotch, a rare display of the Chinese acting against the fakers in their midst.
The sad truth is that the Chinese do not do enough to stop copycat cars or the counterfeits. And there’s nothing that the likes of Mulberry and Hackett can do to stop sweatshops in China faking their designs.
It is therefore understandable that some companies consider accepting that being copied is a sincere form of flattery. The logic for this is that if you’re being copied, it can only drive up the demand for the real thing.
But it still seems wrong that the Chinese should profit from the value of great British brands.
If China wants to be a global power, then it needs to play by the world’s rules — and not just rip off the creations of our most talented designers and engineers.
But to be realistic, what do you say? ...happy to take the fakes, especially on the cars?? Just tell us what's on your mind
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