Protecting consumer rights key to unleashing China's "dual circulation" potential

As China, the world's second-largest consumer market, maintains its momentum of economic recovery in the first two months of 2021, the growing consumption demand reminds the country of the importance of protecting consumer rights.

China's retail sales increased 33.8 percent from a year earlier in the first two months of 2021, beating expectations and marking a significant jump from a 4.6-percent growth in December, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Monday.

Monday was also the World Consumer Rights Day, a day on which China organized the annual "3.15 Gala" to expose counterfeit goods and infringement acts in consumption activities. Other promotional activities were also launched across the country highlighting the importance of protecting consumer rights and interests.

Protecting consumers' rights has immense significance for consumer confidence, especially for China, a country with a vast market of 1.4 billion people including 400 million middle-income earners. During the consumption upgrade, more products came into the market, providing more options to consumers but also making people worry about the quality. New shopping channels such as e-commerce and live-shopping complicate the situation. Only with effective legal protection can consumer confidence be maintained in this case.

Quality supervision and related law enforcement also foster fair competition in the market, pushing enterprises to focus on improving the quality of products. Companies that do a good job of meeting the needs of the consumers will stand out while the ones with poor performance will be eliminated by the market.

China has vowed to accelerate forging a new development paradigm of "dual circulation" in which domestic and overseas markets reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. According to the government work report, the country will steadily improve the environment for consumption and ensure that the people have the ability and willingness to spend. Such an environment cannot be established without the sound protection of consumer rights.

A better environment for consumption will not only benefit domestic consumers and manufacturers of quality products, but also attract more foreign brands and strengthen their confidence in doing businesses in China.

In recent years, it is not rare to see Chinese courts rule in favor of foreign brands and enterprises in IPR-related lawsuits, such as the U.S. basketball legend Michael Jordan's name rights dispute and LEGO's copyright infringement case. Those cases echo the country's goal to create a business environment which is based on market principles, governed by law and up to international standards.

As China strives for high-quality development in the new era, it will remain committed to protecting consumer rights, unleashing the potential of "dual circulation" to benefit the country and the rest of the world.