中國(guó)職業(yè)打假人，這條路還能走多遠(yuǎn)？

BEIJING — Ji Wanchang strolled through a Beijing luxury mall one recent morning with an eye out for luxury coats. But at one store, a clerk told him a fur-collared Moncler and other coats were “sample sizes” and not for sale.

北京——最近的一個(gè)上午，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌在北京一個(gè)豪華購(gòu)物中心漫步，他在仔細(xì)挑選奢華大衣，但一家商店的售貨員告訴他，那里的一件帶毛皮領(lǐng)子的盟可睞(Moncler)羽絨服及其他大衣都是“尺碼樣品”，不出售。

A second clerk, selling a wolf fur-lined Yves Salomon, said the coat was reserved.

另一位出售伊夫薩露蒙(Yves Salomon)牌的狼毛皮襯里服裝的售貨員說(shuō)，大衣已被人預(yù)定了。

Mr. Ji sighed. In both cases, the fur wouldn’t match their labels, he suspected — and the clerks knew selling a fake to Mr. Ji, who is well known on sight in many of China’s shops, meant big trouble.

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌嘆了口氣。他懷疑這兩件皮大衣都與它們的標(biāo)簽不匹配，而且店員也知道，把它們賣給紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌意味著會(huì)有大麻煩，他在許多中國(guó)商店里都能被人認(rèn)出來(lái)。

“Ma’am, I don’t want to make things difficult for you,” he told a sales clerk, who nodded and bowed. “I’ve found problems with your clothes, so please correct them.”

“女士，我不想給你制造麻煩，”他對(duì)一名售貨員說(shuō)，售貨員點(diǎn)著頭，向他鞠了個(gè)躬。“我發(fā)現(xiàn)你們賣的衣服有問(wèn)題，所以請(qǐng)你們自行改正。”

Mr. Ji is what is known in China as a professional counterfeit hunter. Part Ralph Nader, part bounty hunter, Mr. Ji rummages for fake or substandard goods in shops. Then, using China’s consumer protection laws, he collects tens of thousands of dollars from the companies that make or sell them. The laws are part of China’s growing effort to weed out the fake clothes, electronics, food and furniture that swamp its stores and frustrate companies and consumers alike.

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌在中國(guó)從事所謂職業(yè)打假的工作，他有點(diǎn)像拉爾夫·納德(Ralph Nader)，也有點(diǎn)像賞金獵人。紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌在商店里搜尋假商品或不合格的商品。然后，他利用中國(guó)的消費(fèi)者保護(hù)法，從制造或銷售這些商品的公司那里索取數(shù)萬(wàn)美元的賠償。消費(fèi)者保護(hù)法是中國(guó)不斷努力清除假冒商品的行動(dòng)的一部分，中國(guó)的商店里到處都是假牌子的衣服、電子設(shè)備、食品和家具，讓廠家和消費(fèi)者很無(wú)奈。

But Mr. Ji’s livelihood is now under threat. Some government officials say Mr. Ji and the unknown number of others like him abuse a law that was meant merely to empower consumers to report fakes. If proposed new government rules get accepted, people like Mr. Ji will no longer be able to go pro.

但是現(xiàn)在，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌的生計(jì)受到了威脅。一些政府官員表示，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌和像他這樣的數(shù)量不詳?shù)穆殬I(yè)打假者在濫用消費(fèi)者保護(hù)法，該法律原來(lái)只是為了賦予消費(fèi)者舉報(bào)假貨的權(quán)利。如果政府新起草的規(guī)則得到通過(guò)的話，像紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌這樣的人將不再能以打假為職業(yè)。

Even as China grows and matures, and moves to protect brands and ideas, it still struggles with how to get rid of fakes. Overseas governments, overseas companies and even its own increasingly choosy consumers complain that China’s counterfeit products hurt brand names and common people alike. Chinese leaders have stepped up efforts to cull them, in part to protect homegrown companies that are starting to produce their own innovative products. Last year, China’s courts handled about 120,000 intellectual property cases, up 9 percent from 2014, according to official media.

即使中國(guó)在發(fā)展成熟，也開始更加注重保護(hù)品牌和創(chuàng)意，但在如何擺脫假貨的問(wèn)題上，情況依然不容樂觀。外國(guó)政府、海外公司，甚至日益挑剔的消費(fèi)者自己也抱怨說(shuō)，中國(guó)的假冒產(chǎn)品損害了品牌和普通人的利益。中國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人已經(jīng)加大了打假力度，目的之一是保護(hù)正在生產(chǎn)自主創(chuàng)新產(chǎn)品的中國(guó)公司。去年，據(jù)官方媒體報(bào)道，中國(guó)法院處理了大約12萬(wàn)件知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)案件，比2014年增長(zhǎng)了9%。

One anti-fake effort was intended to empower the consumer. In 2009, the government promised consumers that if they found a product that flouted food safety laws, they could win 10 times the value of that product in compensation. In 2013, China bolstered an earlier consumer protection law by increasing payouts to buyers of other kinds of fake goods, while a decision from China’s supreme court was widely seen as supporting counterfeit hunters.

一些打假活動(dòng)旨在賦予消費(fèi)者權(quán)力。2009年，政府向消費(fèi)者承諾，如果發(fā)現(xiàn)違反食品安全法的產(chǎn)品，他們可以獲得該產(chǎn)品10倍價(jià)值的賠償。2013年，中國(guó)通過(guò)增加對(duì)其他類型假貨的買家的賠償力度，強(qiáng)化了之前發(fā)布的消費(fèi)者保護(hù)法，而中國(guó)最高法院的一個(gè)裁定也被廣泛視為對(duì)職業(yè)打假人的支持。

Mr. Ji and his peers have used these laws to their advantage, buying knockoffs in bulk — the more they turn in, the more they are paid — and filling their storerooms withcounterfeit products. Mr. Ji’s group, the Jinan Old Ji Anti-Counterfeit Rights Defense Work Studio, has a network of about 20 informers who report suspected fake products. He says his biggest success to date is collecting about $178,000 in compensation from a company that tried to pass off its blankets as pure cashmere.

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌和同行們利用這些法律來(lái)獲益，他們大量購(gòu)買仿冒產(chǎn)品——買得越多，獲得的賠償也越多——他們的倉(cāng)庫(kù)里裝滿了假冒產(chǎn)品。紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌的團(tuán)隊(duì)濟(jì)南老紀(jì)維權(quán)工作室有大約20個(gè)線人，向他們匯報(bào)疑似假冒產(chǎn)品。他說(shuō)迄今為止，他最成功的一個(gè)案例是從一家公司那里獲得了大約17.8萬(wàn)美元(約合人民幣120萬(wàn)元)的賠償，這家公司出售的毯子號(hào)稱是純羊絨的。

China’s e-commerce boom has given counterfeit hunters a new front.

中國(guó)的電子商務(wù)繁榮給打假者帶來(lái)了新的陣地。

“The main purpose of suing them is to ask them to correct themselves,” said Yu Fengsheng, another counterfeit hunter, who chases merchants who sell fakes on online marketplaces run by the Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company. He became an e-commerce counterfeit hunter after he bought an item marketed by a merchant on Alibaba’s Tmall platform as a foot treatment and discovered that it was probably just makeup. In a statement, Alibaba said it was committed to fighting fakes on its platforms.

另一位職業(yè)打假人于鳳星說(shuō)，“起訴他們的的目的是要他們整改自己。”喻鳳生在中國(guó)最大的電商阿里巴巴集團(tuán)經(jīng)營(yíng)的網(wǎng)上集市里尋找銷售假冒商品的賣家。最初他在阿里巴巴的天貓超市購(gòu)買了一款商家所謂腳部護(hù)理產(chǎn)品，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)它根本是假的，此后他就成為了電商職業(yè)打假人。在一份聲明中，阿里巴巴表示將致力于旗下平臺(tái)的打假。

Among overseas companies, people like Mr. Ji have fans. “A lot of my clients would, in some circumstances, support the activities of these kinds of consumer warriors because ultimately they may be uncovering information that helps us do our job,” said Scott Palmer, an intellectual property lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, which represents American corporations in China.

像紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌這樣的人在海外公司里也有粉絲。美國(guó)盛智律師事務(wù)所(Sheppard, Mullin, Richter& Hampton)的知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)律師彭明(Scott Palmer)說(shuō)：“在某些情況下，我的很多客戶都會(huì)支持這些打假斗士的活動(dòng)，因?yàn)樗麄冏罱K可能會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)一些信息，有助于我們做好工作。”

But government officials complain that the program is increasingly expensive and increasingly abused. Even some foreign business groups complain. Counterfeit hunters often profit “from complaints that target minor product labeling errors instead of true quality or safety issues,” said James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, in emailed comments.

但政府官員也抱怨說(shuō)，這個(gè)法律程序的成本越來(lái)越昂貴，遭到濫用的時(shí)候也越來(lái)越多。甚至一些外國(guó)商業(yè)團(tuán)體也有怨言。中國(guó)美國(guó)商會(huì)主席吉莫曼(James Zimmerman)通過(guò)電郵評(píng)論說(shuō)，職業(yè)打假人通常會(huì)“從小產(chǎn)品的標(biāo)識(shí)錯(cuò)誤，而不是真正的質(zhì)量或安全問(wèn)題投訴”中獲利。

Proposed government rules released in August and under official consideration said that payouts for fakes would not be available to those who sought them “for commercial purposes.”

政府8月發(fā)布了一個(gè)擬議的規(guī)則，目前處于正式考慮階段。規(guī)定說(shuō)，為了“商業(yè)目的”而購(gòu)買這些假貨的人不會(huì)獲得賠償。

Mr. Ji, defending his work, says he has to recoup his legal fees, which he incurs when the companies he accuses of selling fakes fight back. He says he makes about $148,000 a year but his take-home pay is only about $30,000 to $44,000 after expenses.

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌辯解說(shuō)，如果他指控售賣假冒產(chǎn)品的公司進(jìn)行反擊，就會(huì)產(chǎn)生法律費(fèi)用，他需要收回這些成本。他說(shuō)自己每年賺大約14.8萬(wàn)美元，但是支付了這些費(fèi)用之后，只有大約3萬(wàn)到4.4萬(wàn)美元的入賬。

“When they encounter a fake product, more than 80 percent of Chinese people will just suck it up and not take it very seriously, as long as their lives are not in danger,” Mr. Ji said. “If there are more professional counterfeit warriors, the quality of goods will improve at once.”

“80%中國(guó)人忍氣吞聲，面對(duì)假貨只要不危及生命就不很認(rèn)真對(duì)待，”紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌說(shuō)。“如果有更多職業(yè)打假人，商品質(zhì)量一下子就提高。”

Mr. Ji never set out to be a consumer rights activist. Born in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, he was so poor he could not afford to enroll in a university. His jobs have included running a carwash, selling clothes on the street and operating a late-night food stall.

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌一開始并沒有想過(guò)要成為消費(fèi)者權(quán)益活動(dòng)人士。他出生在內(nèi)蒙古北部，家里很窮，讀不起大學(xué)。他曾經(jīng)開過(guò)洗車店，在街頭賣過(guò)衣服，還經(jīng)營(yíng)過(guò)夜間食品攤。

In 2000, a friend of his bought a children’s educational compact disc that turned out to contain pornographic content. Furious, he and his friends “laid siege” to the store where they had bought it, demanding compensation, Mr. Ji said. “At that time, I did not understand what defending your rights is,” he said.

2000年，他的朋友買了一張兒童教育光盤，發(fā)現(xiàn)里面有色情內(nèi)容。他和朋友們憤怒地“圍攻”了出售這張光盤的商店，要求賠償，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌說(shuō)道。“當(dāng)時(shí)不懂維權(quán)，”他說(shuō)。

Later, Mr. Ji bought a copy of China’s consumer law and a manual on how to tell fakes from genuine products. From that point, he had a new career.

后來(lái)，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌買了一本中國(guó)消費(fèi)者法律和一本關(guān)于如何辨別真假商品的手冊(cè)。從那以后，他開始了新的職業(yè)生涯。

On a recent week in October, Mr. Ji traveled to four courthouses in five days across China, filing lawsuits against shopping malls, accusing them of fraud for selling substandard goods. Based in the eastern city of Jinan, he says he goes to court about 100 times a year.

在今年10月的一周，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌在五天時(shí)間里前往位于不同地方的四家法院起訴了一些商店，指控他們欺詐，銷售不合格商品。他住在中國(guó)東部城市濟(jì)南，他說(shuō)每年大約要去100次法院。

Mr. Ji’s work has earned him the enmity of counterfeiters and their thugs, who he says have beaten him up, bound his hands and feet, and telephoned him with death threats. In 2007, police in the southern province of Fujian detained him for 37 days, charging him with extortion, but released him.

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌的活動(dòng)引來(lái)了造假者及其打手的敵意，他說(shuō)這些人毆打他，綁住他的手腳，還打電話威脅說(shuō)要?dú)⒘怂?007年，南部省份福建的警方拘留了他37天，指控他敲詐勒索，但后來(lái)將其釋放。

Still, Mr. Ji views the work as necessary. Every month, he says, he receives more than a hundred phone calls from people curious about how to get compensation from a fake product.

不過(guò)，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌還是認(rèn)為這項(xiàng)工作必須有人來(lái)做。他說(shuō)自己每個(gè)月都會(huì)接到一百多個(gè)電話，來(lái)電者想知道買到假貨后如何獲得賠償。

On a recent afternoon, a man from the eastern city of Tai’an called Mr. Ji, who was en route to check out a shopping mall in Beijing. How, the caller asked, could he emulate Mr. Ji?

近日一個(gè)下午，一個(gè)來(lái)自東部城市泰安的男子給紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌打電話，當(dāng)時(shí)他正在北京的一個(gè)購(gòu)物中心尋找假貨。那名男子問(wèn)，要怎樣才能仿效紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌的做法?

Mr. Ji told the aspiring fraud-buster that he could not “just casually enter any shop and buy eight or 10 pieces and demand compensation.” His profession was built on navigating tricky relationships with local courthouses and police, Mr. Ji said, adding that recently some thugs from Tai’an wanted “my life, my arms and my legs.”

紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌對(duì)這個(gè)想當(dāng)打假者的男子說(shuō)，你不能“隨隨便便走進(jìn)一家商店，買上十件八件假貨，然后要求賠償”。如何處理與當(dāng)?shù)胤ㄔ汉途降募株P(guān)系是他打假事業(yè)的基礎(chǔ)，紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌說(shuō)，最近一些來(lái)自泰安的暴徒“想要我的命、我的胳膊和腿”。

“Not everyone can be a counterfeit hunter. This industry isn’t a gift that falls down from heaven,” Mr. Ji told the caller. “You haven’t seen the hardships and suffering we’ve gone through. You’ve only seen our glorious side.”

“職業(yè)維權(quán)人，不是說(shuō)人家要干都能干的。這個(gè)行業(yè)不是天上掉餡兒餅，”紀(jì)萬(wàn)昌對(duì)那名男子說(shuō)。“我們辛酸的過(guò)程你們沒看到，你們只看到我們輝煌的一面。”