(Image Source: 9to5Mac)

BY DANNY MATTESON

ANCHOR CHRISTIAN BRYANT
 

You're watching multisource tech news analysis from Newsy.

Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks is spilling the beans about Apple’s plans to fight Chinese knockoffs. The Mac Observer explains.

“Wikileaks has published the contents of a cable from the U.S. State Department detailing … Apple’s efforts to fight the problem. Those efforts apparently started only recently, in 2008, and include the hiring of the very successful team that helped Pfizer reduce Viagra knockoff drugs.”

Wondering what else that cable says? According to PC Magazine -- it includes intimate details about Apple’s counterfeit combating battle plan.

“The WikiLeaks cables detail Apple’s early plans for taking on counterfeiters, which included first taking on street vendors and retailers, then going after factories, from which parts for Apple products are often swiped to build fake gadgets. In the last prong of the battle plan, Apple would reportedly target online retailers.”

But according to ZDNet Chinese officials don’t seem to be on board with Apple’s device dragnet.  

“One highlight shows that Beijing ‘refused to investigate’ a manufacturing plant of fake Apple products because it would ‘threaten local jobs’, adding that any raids on a imitation Apple store could drive away shoppers from a local mall.”

And GigaOm adds the Chinese may be slow to comply because...

“...counterfeit electronics aren’t really a health and safety issue at the same level as fake pharmaceuticals, an area where China has been cooperative with corporations like Pfizer.”

So why is this three year old memo relevant now? Because it’s not just counterfeit devices anymore -- it’s entire counterfeit stores. According to CNET...

“The memo is of special interest, given what's currently happening with counterfeit Apple retail stores in China. … One unauthorized store … made headlines after a blog detailed its likeness to an actual Apple retail store, right down to the tables and signage.”

Finally, you may be asking yourself “What’s fueling all this Apple aping?”. According to CNN it’s a simple matter of supply and demand.

“Apple owns and operates four stores in China.... But the hunger for Apple products is insatiable there. That's why stores have begun to sell the products without Apple's permission, while others are hawking cheaper, lower-quality gadgets that are aesthetically similar and bear the chic Apple logo.”

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