UN-backed candidate from Singapore beats China's nominee to head WIPO agency

Daren Tang, a civil servant from Singapore, serving the United Nations since a long-time, has defeated China's nominee to lead the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a vote that followed weeks of vicious diplomatic sniping between Washington and Beijing.

Institut Montaigne, a Paris-based think tank, in one of its report, stated that Daren Tang received 55 of the votes cast by 83 member countries to 28 for China's candidate, Wang Binying. The voting took place in Geneva on March 4.

One of the major reasons behind China's loss on a global stage may be that the mainland has most often been accused of stealing IP rights.

"China is also a growing force in the area of patenting and intellectual property: both as a contributor and as a problem to innovation since it is the country most often accused of stealing IP rights," the report said.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative, which led a seven-month investigation into China's intellectual property theft and made recommendations to the Trump administration, estimates that "Chinese theft of American IP currently costs between $225 billion and $600 billion annually," it added.

The result, however, will be confirmed by the organisation's general assembly in May, according to The New York Times.

The Geneva-based agency received more than a quarter of a million new patent applications in 2018, when the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei topped the list of applicants.

"We are very pleased with the election outcome," America's ambassador in Geneva, Andrew Bremberg, told reporters.

The decision is "a clear demonstration of the importance of protecting intellectual property and the entire independence of WIPO," Bremberg said, using the organisation's acronym.

While a trade agreement reached between America and China early this year included pledges by Beijing to halt some of the practices that Washington has objected to, it did not allay the administration's deep misgivings at the prospect of China's candidate taking the top job at the intellectual property organisation.