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HAIER'S SHARE: Haier won the biggst market share in the program of selling "home appliance in the countryside" (GUO CHENG) |
Haier Co. Ltd., China's top home appliance manufacturer, is well known for its logo depicting a pair of twin brothers. But on at least one occasion, a group of fraudulent appliance makers sold their own illicit copycat wares under the name "Hiller" in a blatant attempt to cheat rural consumers.
Since China launched a nationwide campaign to sell "home appliances in the countryside" (the Program) in February, a total of 9.61 million home appliances were registered as having been sold by the end of the first half of this year. This amounted to an impressive total sales volume of 16.2 billion yuan ($2.4 billion). The government gives a 13-percent subsidy to rural residents buying home appliances under the Program.
But unfortunately, a sensible attempt to both raise the quality of rural life and float China's home appliance industry has been turned, alarmingly, into a pie – and dishonest enterprises want their own big slices. Seizing on Beijing's stimulus package as a golden opportunity, merchants of these fake and low-quality products are now flooding the rural market.
According to the Chinese Consumers' Association (CCA), the country's consumer rights protection organization, the complaints about televisions in the Program in the first half have increased 11 percent year-on-year in the four pilot bases, including Shandong, Henan, Sichuan provinces and Qingdao City.
"The Program has greatly increased the sales – but the after-sales services fail to catch up with the sales strides," said the CCA in a statement.
On July 30, a teleconference addressing the sale of fake and substandard goods in these contexts was held by officials representing nine ministries – mainly the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance, which has demonstrated concerted efforts are needed to crack down on Haier's fake twin brothers and its likenesses.
Six major measures will be taken to curb the fake and substandard products from entering rural areas while ensuring the stimulus plan achieves its expected goal.
During the teleconference, officials said China will go to any and all lengths necessary to punish the production and sales of counterfeit products, and any illegal printing, selling and using of packing material and tag cards with the external symbols reading "home appliance in the countryside."
To raise the farmers' vigilance against counterfeit products, China will enhance publicity of the Program policies while encouraging peasants to buy bid-winning products at designated selling outlets, said members of the teleconference. More convenient and effective reporting and complaint access, meanwhile, will also be provided, agreed members of the teleconference.
Confusing products
When Hu Long, a farmer from Jiangbei District of Chongqing Municipality, entered a locally designated "home appliance in the countryside" store, he was recommended a washing machine by a warm shop assistant.
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