Shanghai, China ? The first hint that the Chinese version of Bill Clinton’s memoir might not be quite right is that for most of the book, he’s not even telling the story.

Alfred A. Knopf, publishers of the former president’s best-selling “My Life,” say they haven’t yet sold the Chinese-language rights to China. So China’s copyright thieves have struck again, concocting their own versions.

One 438-page paperback version called “Wode Shenghuo” (“My Life”) sells for 10 yuan ($1.20) at a temple book fair and carries Clinton’s photo on the cover, just like the 957-page original. But it’s not the same photo.

The copyright information incorrectly lists the original publisher as Simon & Schuster.

Oops. Simon & Schuster published Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “Living History,” not her husband’s book.

The book lists “Clinton, HR” as the author, and just about all of it is lifted verbatim from the Chinese-language version of her memoir.

Piracy of books, movies, music and software is rampant in China, despite vows by Beijing to crack down. International trade groups estimate that theft of copyrights and patents costs Western companies $16 billion a year in sales.

“There’s sort of a habit developed here that anything … in the print media, is essentially in the public domain and allowed to be ‘borrowed,’ if you will,” said Charles Martin, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

An explosion in the variety and range of translated books makes it difficult, sometimes, to tell real from fake. Bookstores and kiosks carry numerous versions of many dozens of biographies and memoirs of famous celebrities, from Charlie Chaplin to billionaire Warren Buffett.

A man holds up two books claiming to be the Chinese version of former U.S. President Bill Clinton's memoir, My

But in the case of the many versions of “My Life” circulating in China, it’s pretty obvious something’s amiss.

In one, the table of contents is lifted straight from “Living History,” with a few omissions. In another, the narrator for most of the book appears to be Hillary Clinton.

“My Life” has no table of contents.

“That isn’t piracy, it’s a completely illegal publication!” exclaimed an editor at Yilin Press, which most of the bogus books list as publisher.