A Chinese court has sentenced the alleged leader of a counterfeiting ring that made fake French luxury Hermès handbags to life in prison, an unusually harsh sentence that legal experts say was meant to highlight intellectual-property protection.

The Heyuan Intermediate People's Court in China's southern province of Guangdong sentenced Xiao Zhenjiang to life in prison earlier this month after public security officials last year raided his factory in the small city of Heyuan, according to a statement on the court's website. Officials found 100 million yuan (about $15.7 million) worth of fake Hermès purses, the statement said. Three accomplices were sentenced to seven to 10 years in prison and were handed fines of 500,000 yuan to 800,000 yuan ($79,000 to $126,000).

Mr. Xiao couldn't be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for Hermès International SCA and Heyuan officials didn't respond to requests for comment Thursday. News of the sentence didn't spread until recent days, when the local government posted a photo on its website of what it said was a congratulatory banner from Hermès.

Legal advisers said that the sentence is unusually severe, as the average criminal sentence handed to counterfeiters is three to seven years in prison. 'Every year, thousands of people have been handed sentences for counterfeiting, but seldom is the sentence this harsh,' said Benjamin Bai, head of law firm Allen & Overy's China intellectual property practice.

The harshest sentences are typically reserved for pharmaceutical and health-related counterfeiting, Mr. Bai said, adding that courts have the power to impose harsher punishments if they feel the crime justifies them.

The sentence is related to a broader regional crackdown launched in February to fight market manipulation, counterfeit products and bribery. Guangdong authorities have said the crackdown is aimed at increasing market innovation and social stability.

The Communist Party chief of Guangdong province, Wang Yang, has strengthened protection of intellectual-property rights this year in what many say is political jockeying to gain favor with China's central government ahead of the once-a-decade leadership transition this fall. 'If it was foreigners demanding that we protect IPR [intellectual-property rights] five to 10 years ago, now we are demanding this ourselves,' he said at a discussion on political reform in March. 'If there isn't a comprehensive system for protecting IPR, and a serious attack on [violations], our own economic transformation and upgrading will fail.'

Enforcement of intellectual-property-rights protections is typically a problem in China, but in recent months public-security officials in Guangzhou, the epicenter of China's counterfeit production, have stringently carried out raids, said Horace Lam, a Beijing-based intellectual-property partner of law firm Jones Day.

National leaders have increasingly stressed intellectual-property protection in recent years in an effort to protect China's homegrown brands and companies, said Mr. Lam. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said in February, ahead of his trip to the U.S., that China would take measures to address U.S. concerns over intellectual-property violations.

Promoting greater innovation by Chinese companies is one of the government's main policy goals as leaders attempt to reform China's economy, creating more research-based and technological powerhouses to compete with overseas companies.

Still, much of China's effort to protect intellectual property has been window-dressing, said Mr. Bai, adding that counterfeit raids are less efficient than creating stronger trademark and patent laws. 'Raids produce numbers and quotas,' Mr. Bai said.

In early August, China's public-security ministry said authorities across the country seized more than $182 million of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and detained nearly 2,000 suspects.
中国一家法院判处涉嫌生产法国奢侈手袋爱马仕(Hermes)的制假团伙主犯无期徒刑。法律专家说，这是个异乎寻常的严厉判决，意在凸显中国政府保护知识产权的决心。

中国广东省河源市中级人民法院发布在官网上的通告显示，公安机关去年依法查处了肖振强在河源市的小作坊，8月早些时候该法院判处肖振强无期徒刑。通告显示，这些仿冒爱马仕皮包货值高达人民币1亿多元。三名同谋分别被判处七到10年有期徒刑，各并处罚金50万元至80万元不等。

广东省委书记汪洋今年一直在增强知识产权保护力度。很多人认为这是一种政治操作，目的是在今秋10年一次的领导人换届选举之前赢得中央政府的好感。汪洋在今年3月一次有关政治改革的座谈会上说，5年10年以前是外国人要求我们保护，现在是我们是自己感觉到要保护知识产权；如果没有一个健全的知识产权保护制度，没有对侵犯知识产权案件的严厉打击，中国的创新意识和创新环境是培养不起来的，我们的经济转型和升级就会失败。

众达律师事务所(Jones Day)驻北京知识产权事务合伙人林俊杰(Horace Lam)所，知识产权保护法规执行不力是中国的一个通病，不过，这几个月公安人员在广州这个中国假货的集中地对假冒伪劣产品展开了严厉打击。

林俊杰说，中国领导人这几年越来越强调知识产权保护问题，他们这样做是为了保护中国本土品牌和企业。中国国家副主席习近平今年2月在访美之前曾说，中国将采取措施，消除美国对侵犯知识产权事件的担忧。

鼓励中国企业开展更大规模的创新是中国政府的主要政策目标之一。中国领导人目前正在努力改革中国经济，成立更多以研发为基础的科技类企业，从而与海外公司进行竞争。

白建民说，尽管如此，中国保护知识产权的行动大多仍只是做做样子，打假的效率并不高，不如打造更强大的商标品牌，出台更严格的专利法规。白建民说，打假打出来的就是一堆数字和配额。