The battle, which began on Friday, was waged on local markets in eight major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Kunming, Shenyang, Chongqing and Guangzhou.

The move was in response to complaints from foreign automobile producers.

A total of 965 officials nationwide have investigated 248 markets suspected of selling fake products and confiscated 30,000 auto parts marked with foreign brands such as Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mercedes Benz.

Specialists from those foreign companies have examined the parts and declared that 90 percent of products on the market are counterfeit.

Fake parts are likely to cause traffic accidents if installed, experts said.

Ivan Lee, manager of the supervisor-parts department under Germany-based BMW, said the firm gives a lot of importance to product quality and are responsible for consumers' safety.

BMW's parts business is severely affected by fake goods, Lee said.

A SAIC official said a close watch would be kept on the counterfeit product markets and the production base would be rooted out.

(China Daily 12/12/2000)