Over 13 million pirated disks were destroyed Monday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, on the fourth World Intellectual Property Rights Day.

The move aimed to show China's resolution in protecting intellectual property rights, said Chen Jianwen, deputy head of Guangzhou customs.

The pirated disks were smuggled either in lengthened containers or small fishing boats and traffickers were lured by the huge profits since a common disk costing less than one yuan (US$0.12) could be sold for six times as much, according to Chen Ningyue, a senior official with Guangzhou customs.

Since 2003, Guangzhou, one of China's major booming cities, has cracked over 120 intellectual property rights cases, involving communication appliances, clothes, watches and vehicle parts and over 13 million pirated disks have been intercepted, according to statistics from Guangzhou customs.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2004)