Fake liquor swamps market

Updated at 8.00pm: The state Quality Supervisory Bureau has found two thirds of the liquor sold in Beijing is not genuine, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Friday.

Inspectors did random checks in Beijing supermarkets, restaurants and hotels and found that samples from eight of 25 kinds of liquor had correct labels. Similar checks in Guangzhou showed 60 per cent of the liquor sold is mislabelled. In Shanghai, the rate is 30 per cent.

Because Thursday was Consumers Day in China, officials this week have publicised numerous accounts of fake products sold in China. Other falsely labelled goods include fruit, medicine, Hangzhou tea, car parts and cigarettes.

Wuliangye, a famous hard liquor from Sichuan Province, was the most often counterfeited drink. The brewers imitated real labels so accurately that the inspectors could hardly tell genuine products from fake ones by looking.

For imports, most counterfeiters choose the expensive and popular brands of Cognac XO wines. Because Cognac bottles made with sophisticated forgery-resistant techniques can hardly be imitated, criminals refill used Cognac bottles with bogus liquor.

But unlike a few years ago, counterfeiters these days are filling bottles with better liquor, the inspectors said.