CHINA claims to have won a battle against copyright piracy by closing down its most notorious market for counterfeit Prada bags, Nike shoes, Rolex watches, Victoria’s Secret negligées and North Face jackets, known locally as North Fakes.

Silk Alley, situated in a narrow lane behind the US Embassy, disappeared this week despite protests from stall holders famed for their haggling. Cartons of £3 Louis Vuitton purses and £1 Armani ties were carted away under police escort.

For thousands of foreign visitors, coming to the Chinese capital will never be the same again. No Beijing guide book published over the last 20 years was complete without a reference to the market that sold everything except rolls of silk.

Suzanne Orbach, who arrived in Beijing from Germany yesterday, stood in the deserted alley and said: “My wardrobe came from here. I would fly to Beijing once a year and make the money for the ticket back from savings on my shopping.”

Her companion, a Lufthansa stewardess, said that among colleagues, Frankfurt-Beijing was the most popular route due to the shopping potential.

A new Silk Market is to be opened next door in a newly built high-rise this weekend, without the fake goods. Vendors have been offered stalls in the new building, but some said it was too expensive to rent.

“I don’t know how much the rent is now, but it’s too much. It’s only for the big bosses,” said a 19-year-old woman, who has sold men’s shirts for three years since she came to Beijing from the poor, eastern province of Anhui. “I don’t know what I’ll do now. Maybe I’ll go home and come back in a year or so.”

The US and other governments are pressuring China to stop rampant product piracy and enforce intellectual property rights as part of its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organisation.

“The market was a source of intellectual property rights abuses, which the Central Government has pledged to treat with greater efforts,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

When the removal men came, six vendors climbed on to the roof of the market to protest against their eviction, shivering in the sub-zero temperatures as police on a fire ladder tried to talk them down.

China produces 70 per cent of the world’s fake goods. Foreign businesses have complained of the difficulty of prosecuting violators, and successful cases almost always result in modest fines.

In response, China’s top court has lowered the bar for treating violations as crimes and laid out prison terms of up to seven years. The ruling came amid heightened awareness over the pitfalls ofcounterfeit products, after fake milk powder killed 13 babies in April.

“The Government and developers are driving us out,” said Sun Xiuzhen, who has leased a stall for more than two decades. “They are violating our intellectual property rights by taking the Silk Alley name.”

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