Beijing police have seized nearly 30,000 fake Olympic products, mainly the official mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, or "Fuwa"s, since the beginning of this year.

According to a report of Beijing Daily Messenger, most of the fake products were sold near subways or at night markets or on the Internet.

The cost of fake products sometimes cost more than authentic ones, said the report.

In one case, more than 12,800 partially finished "fuwa"s and more than 12,700 finished products were confiscated in February in a house in Dongcheng District, which was rented by a man from east China's Shandong Province, said the newspaper.

The newspaper quoted a local official as saying that the fake "Fuwa"s, like other shoddy rag dolls, were sometimes filled with industrial waste, such as black-colored moldy cotton, which can threaten people's health.

Chen Feng, deputy director of the marketing department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said China has stepped up efforts to protect the intellectual property rights of Olympic products.

"If we don't strengthen the crackdown on counterfeit products now, they will become rampant during the Olympic Games," Chen was quoted as saying.

He called on the public not to buy the shoddy products and report to police if they find fake Olympic products are sold.

(Xinhua News Agency June 18, 2007)