In Beijing, Opening Day Means Cable Foul Play

By Matthew Forney/Beijing

Who committed baseball's first steal this season? According to ESPN, it was China's Foreign Ministry. The sports channel alleges that the ministry's business arm, which runs one of Beijing's largest apartment complexes, has attracted renters for more than two years by lashing an illegal decoder to its satellite dish and pirating Major League Baseball and other programs. Soon the network plans to present evidence to the Chinese government, which has been touting its crackdown on copyright violations that cost foreign firms up to $1 billion last year. "I find it amazing that a Foreign Ministry company would use a smuggled decoder to rip off these shows," says DAVID CANTALUPO, ESPN's general manager in China. The ministry's company insists it bought rights to the shows but won't say from whom. Who enjoys the pilfered programs? The apartments are stuffed with diplomats and journalists, including U.S. State Department officials and reporters from TIME. How long until the World Series?

--By Matthew Forney/Beijing