For one Chinese company, manufacturing fake iPhones is no small matter – it’s a lucrative business involving six hidden production lines, hundreds of employees and tens of thousands of counterfeit goods distributed beyond China’s borders.

According to a statement posted online Sunday, Beijing police have cracked down on a technology company that they say mass-produced and exported more than 41,000 fake Apple iPhones and 66,000 ribbon cables worth a total of 120 million yuan ($19.4 million) this year alone.

The Beijing-based firm, which was not named in the police statement, first caught the authorities’ eye after fake China-made handsets were seized in the United States in May. Nine suspects have been taken into custody, police said.

Apple has a long history of being faked in China, ranging from fake iPhones to knockoff stores. But the case of the Beijing-based firm is exceptional both for its scale and its overseas reach. According to the police statement, a 43-year-old male suspect surnamed Yu and his 40-year-old wife, surnamed Xie, bought used mobile mainboards from foreign countries and fake parts bearing logos from the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen. The couple, who are from Shenzhen, hired hundreds of workers to assemble the products in Beijing and then sold them overseas, police said, adding that the six production lines were hidden in a bonded industrial zone under the guise of an electronic gadget maintenance company. An Apple spokeswoman did not immediately reply to an e-mail request from China Real Time. An employee of the Beijing Public Security Bureau news office who declined to give his name said he couldn’t provide any other details about the case aside from the original police statement. While it is not clear whether the knockoff handsets were sold abroad or shipped back to the Chinese market, Apple’s popularity within China is staggering. The company’s revenue in greater China – which the company defines as mainland China plus Hong Kong and Taiwan – rose 112% in the third quarter of this year. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said that he expects China to one day become the company’s biggest market, adding: “We’re just getting started there.” --Yang Jie

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8