NewsBot Follow-up: Kunming is the Rotten Apple of China’s Eye, 27 Times Over

On July 20th, we reported the story of a foreign blogger in China who discovered a fake Apple store in Kunming, China. A week later, we brought you the breaking story that there were, in fact, five fake Apple retail spaces in Kunming. Now, several weeks later, it turns out that there were not five Apple stores in Kunming, but twenty-seven. Yes, a two followed by a seven. Okay, we know Apple makes great technology and its portable consumer products, like the iPad2, are really hot right now. But this is quite literally ridiculous. For one thing, it shows a serious lack of originality, which has actually never been much of a concern in China’s shanzhai (fake goods) trade. China’s Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) has, of course, ordered all the stores to stop using Apple’s logo and its variants. This was after Apple China complained to the government yesterday, August 11th, about copyright and trademark infringement. Unfortunately, news reports cannot say at this time whether the fake Apple stores have been selling counterfeit Apple products, or legitimate products which have been smuggled into the country. The AIC has guaranteed that it will increase its vigilance in monitoring illegal Apple stores, and set up a complaint hotline to address the problem. In the meantime, still no word on whether Steve Jobs is putting on his angry face and hopping a plane to China. (Reuters – 27 Fake Apples in Kunming)