u.s. commerce secretary carlos gutierrez gestures during a speech at chongqing university in the southwest china's municipality of chongqing march 27, 2006. gutierrez and his delegation arrived in beijing later monday and will hold talks with chinese officials about china-us trade and other issues. [newsphoto]

china is the biggest loser from intellectual property violations and needs to stamp out piracy to build global corporate champions, u.s. commerce secretary carlos gutierrez said on monday.

gutierrez was speaking in the southwestern city of chongqing at the start of a visit to china to prepare for high-level u.s.-chinese meetings in washington next month.

in a speech to students and businessmen, gutierrez said widespread counterfeiting was not only harming u.s. companies but also posing a threat to china's own long-term development.

"ironically, it is china that is most affected by violations of intellectual property rights," he said.

a chinese official conceded the country had rampant copyright piracy but said the problem could not be eliminated overnight.

"we still have a serious problem of piracy. we need to study more forceful and effective measures to curb it," yan xiaohong, deputy chief of the national copyright administration, told a news conference in beijing.

gutierrez welcomed chinese efforts to crack down on counterfeiting -- xinhua news agency reported that 14 compact disk operations had been punished for illegal copying -- and praised vice-premier wu yi for taking the lead in tackling what he said was clearly a complex issue.

"we need to see results, but we should also recognize the tremendous effort that's being made. that's a very positive development," gutierrez told reuters after his speech.

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