Leader: Piracy crackdown no good for China

Bill Gates must be feeling pretty chuffed with himself after the Chinese president paid a visit to his home.

The PR spin on this has been that the two discussed software piracy and intellectual property. Perhaps they did but the meeting itself says something about the important role technology is now playing in global politics and development.

There is no way China can catch up quickly with the west without IT skills. And that won't happen so fast if the government comes down hard with licensing laws.

And fast development is one of China's biggest goals. Catching up with the west is a major challenge for the country. A significant proportion of the population (at least 80 million people according to the UN) live below the poverty line.

Bill Gates and the Redmond crew are probably very concerned at how much of their software is being pirated. One obvious point is that it must be hurting their (albeit deep) pockets.

China has to be seen to be taking a harsh, no-nonsense approach to this but it would be counter-productive at this stage for the country to introduce too many anti-piracy measures.

More than anything, China needs infrastructure. It is building the roads, the railway systems and the airports to satisfy its needs. It has one of the cheapest, hard-working labour markets in the world and is succeeding in getting people away from working the land and into higher-paid manufacturing and services jobs.

But there is no way China can catch up quickly with the west without IT skills. And that won't happen so fast if the government comes down hard with licensing laws.

Piracy is still commonplace in China and that is understandable if we consider the infrastructure race in which the country is running. It is hard for anyone - especially at a refined dinner at the Gates mansion - to take the stance that that is fine. But let's see how fast stiff regulation and a crackdown will come.