Creation: Marxist Philosophy Group of the Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association
ㅤㅤ With the start of the “Double Eleven Shopping Festival,” major “professional fake fighters” have become active. They plan to take advantage of this opportunity to make a big profit, with some even preparing 1 million yuan to抢货, expecting to claim 10 million yuan in compensation. Not only that, they also began selling various fake-fighting courses and forming “Master-Disciple Joint Fake Fighting Teams” for joint actions. Through this union, they can not only obtain information on fake targets more quickly and in larger quantities but also significantly increase the number of buyers and purchase amounts to demand higher compensation—according to some fake fighters, they can even earn more than 100,000 yuan in compensation from a single transaction.[1]
ㅤㅤ Many believe that professional fake fighters are a group committed to protecting consumer rights and fighting against unscrupulous capitalists. They use public opinion and national laws as weapons to “confront capital,” while often also making a considerable extra income during the fake-fighting process—earning tens of thousands a month is common—so it can be said that fake fighters both earn the face of “upholding justice” and make a fortune daily, making it a lucrative job.
ㅤㅤ However, these professional fake fighters are by no means heroes fighting for the people’s interests, but rather a small group of mercenaries serving the bourgeoisie for money and fame. To obtain sky-high compensation, what do they do? They simply search for targets on platforms, place orders, fill out complaint materials, and then wait for compensation (through government penalties on merchants) to “rain down from the sky.” However, we know that value does not truly fall from the sky; it can only be created through labor. Moreover, the activities of fake fighters clearly do not belong to labor—they neither create (or preserve) material wealth through physical effort nor create spiritual wealth (such as literary, artistic creations or scientific, philosophical research) through mental effort. So, who exactly creates the so-called compensation income of fake fighters? Since commercial activities occur in the circulation field, they do not create value themselves; the income of commercial capitalists comes from the surplus value created by industrial workers and transferred to them by industrial capitalists. Therefore, obtaining compensation from commercial capitalists is essentially sharing the surplus value of the proletariat from their income. Furthermore, when fake fighters claim compensation from individual merchants[2] and commercial workers[3], the compensation money directly comes from the wages earned by the latter through their commercial labor of selling goods. Clearly, so-called fake-fighting is essentially a form of exploitation.
ㅤㅤ Moreover, taking surplus value from some commercial capitalists does not mean they are enemies of the bourgeoisie. On the contrary, their activities are actually exploited and supported by the bourgeoisie and the government of the “middle-repair” (中修) regime. For the middle-repair government, fake-fighting is the best opportunity to fill their pockets. Once counterfeit goods are exposed, they immediately use laws such as the “Food Safety Law,” “Consumer Rights Protection Law,” and “Industrial and Commercial Management Regulations” to extort money from the fake targets, imposing exorbitant fines. Sometimes, the middle-repair government even personally steps into fake-fighting, launching heavy blows against various “counterfeit goods” during the “3.15 Gala”[4]. For the bourgeoisie, fake-fighting is also a clever means to suppress competitors and expand market share. As a result, small vendors or small and medium bourgeoisie often become targets of professional fake fighters. Moreover, the bourgeoisie also uses fake-fighting to intensify the oppression and exploitation of workers. In many stores, to deal with expired products being targeted by fake-fighters, capitalists require employees to frequently check shelves, which undoubtedly increases workers’ labor intensity.
ㅤㅤ The emergence and popularity of fake-fighting are not only an inevitable result of capitalism but also a reflection of capitalism’s decline after entering the imperialist stage. In capitalist society, value and surplus value have become the sole purpose of production, while use value only attracts capitalist concern when it affects the realization of commodity prices. To pursue profits, many enterprises even produce counterfeit, inferior, and harmful products that damage consumers’ physical and mental health. They achieve this by cutting corners—using raw materials that do not meet industry standards but are cheaper, providing no guarantees for product safety, skipping necessary production steps, etc. (rather than improving labor productivity)—which causes individual production prices to fall below social production prices, earning excess profits. The existence of大量劣质商品 (large quantities of inferior goods) has become an unavoidable phenomenon in capitalist society. At the same time, as capitalism develops into imperialism, inherent contradictions and contradictions between production and consumption become sharper. To compete for markets, the bourgeoisie forms monopolistic organizations and engages in fierce competition, and hiring professional fake fighters is just one of many new competitive tactics.
ㅤㅤ Furthermore, the reason many choose to become fake fighters is precisely because of capitalism. Under the squeeze of large-scale industrialization and especially monopoly capital, the plight of the petty bourgeoisie rapidly worsens, and some bourgeoisie even join the ranks of impending bankruptcy. Although their economic status is about to change or has already changed, they still harbor serious bourgeois ideas, dreaming of “doing less work and earning more,” trying every means to maintain or improve their economic position. Meanwhile, the “middle-repair” government also widely promotes various luxury, selfish, and exploitative bourgeois ideas, leading many to develop an extreme individualist worldview of “self-interest above all.” For their comfortable lives, they utilize the laws of the middle-repair government, with the direct or indirect support of the bourgeoisie, participating in the redistribution of surplus value through so-called fake-fighting, extracting a share of income that does not belong to them from the working people.
ㅤㅤ Some believe that professional fake-fighting and the efforts of ordinary consumers to protect their rights are no different—they both seem to demand refunds and compensation after buying counterfeit goods, but their content is entirely different. As previously mentioned, the purpose of professional fake fighters buying goods is to report counterfeit goods to obtain compensation. Therefore, they only care about the value of the goods, as this determines how much compensation they can receive, and they do not consider the use value of the goods; in fact, they might even want to buy fake goods. Thus, their money spent somewhat acts like capital, becoming a source of surplus value. However, for ordinary workers, their concern when purchasing goods is its use value. They do not want to buy counterfeit goods or waste their money. Moreover, from the source of the money used for purchasing, these fake fighters do not labor—they have long since used surplus value from the proletariat in previous fake-fighting activities, and their spending on fake goods is a form of exploitation, not victimization. In contrast, workers’ money spent on goods is part of their wages—earned through selling their labor with their sweat and blood. Therefore, their rights protection struggle is entirely justified—should workers, exhausted by bourgeois exploitation in factories and earning meager wages, also have to endure fraud in stores?
ㅤㅤ The attitude of the “middle-repair” government towards the two different types of “fake-fighting” (if we also consider protecting consumer rights as fake-fighting) is also completely different. They not only do not oppose professional fake-fighting but even openly support it. For example, the professional fake fighter “Tie Tou Cheng E Yang Shan” (铁头惩恶扬善) began reporting violations by Hangzhou New Oriental on August 4, 2023, and posted related videos. Just a few days later (the 7th), all branches of Hangzhou New Oriental were ordered to shut down by education authorities. In November, Hangzhou New Oriental was ordered by the middle-repair regime to cease teaching, refund fees, and pay fines exceeding 150,000 yuan. If it weren’t for the support of the “ban on tutoring” (which is actually a means for bureaucratic capital to monopolize the “fatty” education industry), could lone fake fighters really confront giants like New Oriental? Under the tacit approval and encouragement of the middle-repair regime, some even stockpiled millions before the “Double Eleven” to participate in fake-fighting[5]. Also, from the fact that professional fake fighters only target private capital and small producers, and never attack “state-owned” bureaucratic monopoly capital, it is clear how they collude with the middle-repair regime.
ㅤㅤ In contrast to professional fake fighters, ordinary consumers’ rights protection always faces opposition and obstruction from the bourgeoisie. Especially when rights defense touches the interests of bureaucratic monopoly capital, rights defenders may even face threats to their personal safety or life.
ㅤㅤ In 2008, China experienced the notorious Sanlu melamine-tainted milk powder incident, when the milk powder produced by Hebei Sanlu Group was found to contain the chemical raw material melamine. Affected infants totaled 30 million[6], with 300,000 developing kidney stones and “big head syndrome”—cranial deformities, developmental delays, and significantly slower growth and intelligence development than their peers, many of whom remain incurable even into adulthood. The parents of these poisoned children launched rights protests, but under extreme suppression by the middle-repair government, most victims only received the minimum compensation of 2,000 yuan, according to the unified standards set by the middle-repair Ministry of Health, with death compensation for affected infants at 200,000 yuan, severe cases at 30,000 yuan, and ordinary symptoms at 2,000 yuan[7]. Even three years after the incident, nearly 30,000 children still had not received any compensation[8]! The so-called compensation fund, jointly established by 22 involved companies with an investment of 1.1 billion yuan, was called a “state secret” by officials, and its funds disappeared[9]. Some persistent consumers even faced violent repression by the middle-repair regime—“Kidney Stone Dad” Guo Li’s daughter suffered from renal failure due to melamine-tainted milk powder. Guo Li investigated the issue and demanded compensation from the dairy companies, but was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the middle-repair court for “extortion”[10]. In another case, Guangzhou doctor Tan Qindong also faced similar persecution. In 2017, Tan Qindong publicly criticized Hongmao medicinal wine for false advertising. Twenty days later, he was跨省追捕 (cross-province hunted) by Inner Mongolia police, forcibly taken northward, and detained in Liangcheng County detention center for 97 days[11]. During his three months of imprisonment, he endured torture and suffered severe psychological trauma. After finally being released, his family found him crying, talking to himself, losing control of his emotions, slapping himself, and even head-butting walls. Subsequently, Tan Qindong issued an apology statement for Hongmao medicinal wine and disappeared from the internet[12].
ㅤㅤ It is clear that the middle-repair regime neither wishes nor can completely ban the phenomenon of professional fake-fighting. However, recently, it has even issued signals indicating a crackdown on so-called “illegal fake-fighting.” What is their true intention? In fact, this is just another means for the middle-repair regime to suppress ordinary consumers’ rights protection—labeling all rights defense as “malicious fake-fighting” or “illegal fake-fighting,” then wielding the law arbitrarily to suppress workers with various charges and punishments. The middle-repair regime knows that nearly all the products they produce are inferior goods of secondary quality. A small group of professional fake fighters’ “exposures” are still within their control and help them gain more market and profit. But widespread exposure and rights protection by the working people will only hinder the realization of their “most daring leap”—the realization of their capital. In the current context of severe overproduction and massive stockpiling of goods, this is something the middle-repair government simply cannot accept.
Stores like Lawson convenience stores stipulate that if customers demand compensation due to expired products, the compensation is borne by the employee on duty when the customer purchased the product, as shown in the following webpage: https://www.66law.cn/question/21289065.aspx ↩︎
Refers to the CCTV “3.15 Gala,” named after its annual broadcast on March 15th, known as “International Consumer Rights Day,” purportedly to “promote consumer rights” and “raise awareness of consumer rights.” ↩︎