BEIJING, April 22(Xinhuanet)-- China will launch a nation-wide educational campaign starting April 29 asking high school studentsto boycott pirated products in a new effort to enhance public awareness on intellectual property rights(IPR) protection.

In the campaign, entitled"Rejecting pirated products-- starting from me", celebrities and IPR protection officers will beinvited to give lectures in high schools across the country and TVprograms. In addition, students will be organized to tour communities in IPR knowledge publicity activities.

"Piracy not only impairs the interests of copyright owners, butalso poses hazards to the creativity of the nation and the conductof the citizens," said an official with State Intellectual Property Office, which sponsors the campaign in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and two other organizations.

"Enhancing IPR protection awareness among students will play a major role in elevating the awareness of the whole society," he said.

The campaign will kick off on April 29 in the high schools of ten cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, and run through December.

A white paper released here Thursday listed China's major achievements in improving IPR protection, but an official with theState Intellectual Property Office acknowledged IPR protection is a difficult job.

"As a developing country, China established an IPR protection system only a little more than 20 years ago. Many of our businesses and people do not have much awareness of IPR protection.There's some difficulty in bringing them in line with international rules and domestic laws on the subject," said Zhang Qin, deputy director of the office.

"But to develop its economy, China must pursue a road of innovation on its own. IPR protection is an imperative condition in this process," he said.

He said the Chinese government has adopted a clear-cut stand onthis issue and that is to"strictly protect IPR protection in accordance with the law".

"Only through doing this can we spur domestic innovation and creation, accelerating the development of large enterprises and integrating the Chinese economy into the new world economy," he said. Enditem