Chinese villagers snapped ‘looting’ from counterfeit pile

Villagers from near a Chinese city have been photographed seemingly looting from a 35 ton stockpile of counterfeit goods that was reportedly due to be burned.

Locals from the village, near Xuzhou, in the Jiangsu province, were yesterday (March 12) seen clambering up the pile, which had been collected by government officials.

The goods, which included healthcare and cosmetics items, were reportedly worth more than RMB 285,000 ($46,000).

According to the People’s Daily online news website, the goods’ destruction was due to take place but “villagers nearby equipped with hooks, bags, bamboo baskets and other tools” immediately began looting.

“Law enforcement officers tried to stop them. Several women took advantage of the chaos and took away several boxes of counterfeit soy milk and MSG and ran back to continue looting,” the website said.

The proposed public burning was one of many that have taken place across the country as part of a crackdown on counterfeit goods. In 2013, for example, Chinese officials set fire to a pile of fake wine, cigarettes, handbags and cosmetics in Guiyang, capital city of the Guizhou province.