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Since last July, the Italian Trade Commission has gone to China three times to protest against Chinese companies counterfeiting and infringing on Italian trademarks. The complaints presented 30 separate examples of Chinese companies marketing their products as “made in Italy”, using Italian names for their brands and using the Italian flag to mislead consumers. Unsurprisingly, of the 30 brands mentioned, many are quite popular with Chinese consumers, such as Larentou (老人头) leather shoes, Stella Luna women’s shoes and the Bosnia brand (博西尼). The most outrageous example of a Chinese company falsely marketing itself as foreign is the Jajemon brand (嘉加梦), whose top of the line mattress has a market price of 34,000 RMB, and claims to retail for around 6,000 euros (approximately 49,800 RMB). However, in Italy a genuine top-of-the-line mattress currently costs less than 600 euros.

Made in Italy?

Walk into any major clothing retailer in Beijing and…