Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez is visiting China this week for talks concerning the under-valued yuan. While speaking at a unversity, Gutierrez takes the opportunity to touch upon the piracy problem.

As reported in BusinessWeek Online:

[T]he secretary also called for more aggressive Chinese efforts to stamp out rampant product piracy, saying Washington isn't satisfied with progress in stopping illicit copying of movies, music and other goods.

"We want to see more results. We're not there," he said. "I don't think there are enough criminal prosecutions. I believe penalties are still on the light side."

China promised on Monday to tighten a crackdown on piracy and improve enforcement cooperation with foreign governments ahead of President Hu Jintao's trip to the United States.

The government shut down 17 production lines making pirated DVDs and CDs last year and six this year, said Yan Xiaohong, deputy commissioner of the National Copyright Administration of China.

"We are very tough in our measures," Yan said at a news conference. "Of course we need to speed up the process, but we can't expect that the problem will go away overnight," he said.