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1. INTRODUCTION
RELATIONS between China and the United States have become increasingly complicated over the last decade, with a large number of political and economic issues in dispute. Prominent among these issues have been the recurring disputes between the United States and China over Chinese protection of foreign intellectual property. Since 1991 four bilateral agreements between China and the United States have addressed Chinese protection of intellectual property rights (IPRS). While the agreements were accompanied in the mid-1990s by US complaints over violations and subsequent bilateral tensions, the end of the millennium saw increased Chinese efforts to enforce foreign and domestic IPRS and less tension over the issue between the two governments.
Our focus in this paper is on the economic and political foundations of the ongoing disputes between the two governments as well as the rapid convergence of Chinese IPR law and enforcement to OECD standards. International politics have clearly played an important role in the disputes. For example, the 1996dispute over IPRs was, at least in part, a spillover from the wider sphere of US–China relations, in particular the contention over Taiwan policies and the 1996visit of Taiwan’s president to the United States. Domestic politics have played a role in the disputes, with the mid-1990s leadership transition in China (from DengXiaoping to Jiang Zeeman) and the 1996 US presidential election increasing the need for politicians in both countries to become less flexible in their public stances, thereby further extending IPR negotiations and deepening tensions. Economic considerations have also played a fundamental role in these disputes. As a net exporter of intellectual property as well as IPR-intensive products, the United States has incentives to pressure China to upgrade IPR laws and enforcement, while China, a net importer of intellectual property and IPRintensivegoods, has incentives to resist.1 Relations between the two parties are tempered by the limited capacity of China’s legal system and society to change rapidly in response to both domestic and foreign pressures. We argue that China’s desire to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) fundamentally changed the nature of the game due to the WTO’s strong minimum standards for IPR laws and the veto held by the United States and the European Union over Chinese ascension to WTO membership.

2. IPRS IN CHINA AND RECURRING DISPUTES WITH THE UNITED STATES
Prior to its enactment of modern IPR laws in the 1980s, China had three decades of checkered experiences with intellectual property institutions borrowed from the USSR. The October 1949 founding of the PRC was followed in August1950 by the promulgation of the central government’s Provisional Regulations on the Protection of Inventions Rights and Patent Rights.2 Inventors were awarded a’ certificate of invention’, entitling them to recognition and monetary rewards tied to cost savings from their inventions. The state retained the right to exploit the invention. Procedures for registering trademarks were also promulgated in 1950, although few marks were registered. In 1963 new trademark regulations we reissued requiring trademark registration, with the intent being to improve product quality. Publishing regulations provided authors with rewards based on the nature of本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。