Internationally Driven, but Domestically Aware, Legislation in Troubled Times: The First Copyright Statute in China

We use the 1910 Copyright Code of the Great Qing Dynasty (Qing Copyright Code) as a lens to understand China’s initial encounter with international intellectual property norms, examine the dynamic political economy in which the law was enacted, and provide an overview of the structure and important provisions of the Qing Copyright Code. We argue that, although foreign pressure was an important factor shaping the Qing Copyright Code, the Code was designed not to protect the economic interests of foreigners in China but to achieve a pair of distinct goals: advance China’s national interests in accessing Western knowledge and incentivize the production and dissemination of knowledge in the country. This argument is substantiated by not only the political economy of the legislation but also the later implementation of the law.