Even by the standards of China's billion-dollar piracy industry, it was a remarkable gaffe. The Guangzhou No. 11 Rubber Factory had opened its doors to London International Group executives, hoping to produce Durex condoms in China. As they moved from the latex dippers to the packaging lines, that something for the weekend looked a little too familiar until factory staff, red with embarrassment, hurriedly removed the fake Durex and hustled the British visitors away.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Western companies can feel complimented. Pirates' efforts to copy everything from Durex condoms to Duracell batteries have made China the counterfeit center of the world. With total annual losses to counterfeiting now running at tens of billions of dollars, some of the biggest global brand names united earlier this month in a coalition to fight the fakes.

"China's unprecedented economic growth has led to a surge in counterfeiting that in terms of size, scope and severity appears to have no parallels in history," claimed the new Quality Brands Protection Committee March 3. This coalition of 28 multinationals, including Chinese household names like Coca-Cola, Gillette and Phillips, estimate sales losses at over 20 percent a year. For firms with a combined $6 billion-plus invested in China, and little if no profits to date, the pirates' share is becoming hard to endure.