The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Beijing had barely concluded when copies of the outfits worn by the leaders at the event’s opening began appearing for sale in China.
Several vendors produced copies of the mandarin-collared jacket and matching accessories and offered them Wednesday on Taobao.com, the online marketplace owned by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, for prices ranging from 320 renminbi, about $52, to 2,999 renminbi.
By midday Thursday, the items had disappeared from Taobao. Alibaba did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chinese media coverage of the items raised questions about whether the copied garments were a violation of the intellectual property rights of the original designers.
The outfits were part of an APEC tradition of dressing leaders in designs inspired by clothing from the host country. This year’s jackets came in a choice of brown, green or purple silk and were widely noted for their resemblance to “Star Trek” uniforms.
“What Xi Dada wears will definitely be hot,” one vendor said, using a nickname for the Chinese president that roughly means “Uncle Xi,” The Beijing News reported on Thursday, before the items were removed from Taobao. The vendor told the newspaper that the key to selling copied garments is to move quickly, adding, “If leaders can wear it, why can’t we?”
