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 ||||| BEIJING Police in Beijing have busted a factory that produced more than 41,000 fake iPhones worth as much as 120 million yuan ($19 million), including some that reached the United States, and have arrested nine suspects in the counterfeiting operation. 
 
 Apple is one of the most popular brands in China, where authorities have stepped up efforts in recent years to dispel the country's reputation for turning out counterfeit goods. 
 
 Officials have taken stiffer action to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights, pushed firms to apply for trademarks and patents and cracked down on fakes. 
 
 Police arrested nine people, including a married couple who led the operation, after a raid in May on the factory, run under the guise of a gadget maintenance shop on the northern outskirts of the Chinese capital. 
 
 The details were revealed in a social media posting on Sunday by the public security bureau in Beijing. 
 
 The group, headed by a 43-year old man, surnamed Yu, and his 40-year old wife, surnamed Xie, both from the southern hardware manufacturing city of Shenzhen, allegedly set up the Beijing factory with six assembly lines in January, the bureau said. 
 
 They hired "hundreds" of workers to repackage second-hand smartphone components as iPhones for export, it added. 
 
 Police seized 1,400 handsets and large quantities of accessories during the May 14 raid. In the United States, the newest Apple Inc handsets can fetch $649, or more, depending on the model. 
 
 Beijing police said their investigation followed a tip-off from U.S. authorities who seized some of the fake devices. 
 
 The destination of the counterfeit phones, and how many made it there, remains unknown. 
 
 Public security representatives declined to comment on Monday, telling Reuters they had no additional information. 
 
 Apple also declined to comment, saying the investigation was ongoing. 
 
 It is not the first time China has uncovered plots to exploit the popularity of Apple products. 
 
 In 2011, bloggers in the southwestern city of Kunming discovered more than a dozen unauthorized brick-and-mortar outlets that carefully replicated the interior decor, and even employee uniforms, used in genuine Apple stores. 
 
 The viral pictures embarrassed officials, who vowed to do more to protect trademarks. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
– Is China getting serious about cracking down on fakes? Police in Beijing say they've shut down a factory that employed hundreds of people and ran six assembly lines creating fake iPhones for export, some of which reached the US, reports Reuters. Police say they acted on information from the US to find the factory, which produced more than 41,000 phony iPhones, reports the Wall Street Journal, which calls the bust "exceptional both for its scale and its overseas reach." Investigators say the couple who set up the factory earlier this year repackaged secondhand smartphone parts to create the fakes. (In 2011, Chinese authorities shut down 22 fake Apple stores in a single city.)