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Friday, 16 January 2009
Justice is Truly Blind for Guangdong Bosses
Guangdong officials say they are willing to look the other way if key businesspeople and technical personnel are accused of minor crimes, in an effort to help the province ride out the economic downturn and maintain social stability.
Guangdong officials say they are willing to look the other way if key businesspeople and technical personnel are accused of minor crimes, in an effort to help the province ride out the economic downturn and maintain social stability.
The provincial prosecutors’ office announced on Tuesday that to “guarantee the stable development of the economy”, law and order authorities, such as the Public Security Bureau, might not detain or arrest legal representatives of businesses, daily operations chiefs, and technical staff who are suspected of “general crimes”.
According to a statement posted on its website, the prosecutors’ office urged all lower-level branches to follow new guidelines to help businesses in difficulty, saying the goal was to advance Guangdong’s economic development.
For example, lower-level prosecutors were not allowed to randomly “freeze enterprises’ bank accounts” or “publish stories that might affect enterprises’ reputations”.
It also said investigations would not be allowed to directly affect the negotiations or work of companies that were involved in large-scale projects.
As one of the provinces hit worst by the global financial crisis, Guangdong has come up with various policies to ease pressure on the business community.
On Sunday, the provincial Communist Party committee’s Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that police and prosecutors must not undermine social stability when punishing the heads of state-owned enterprises.
It said prosecutors’ offices would be required to report the results of investigations into state-owned companies to relevant party committees and governments.
If the bosses had to be replaced or detained, the top priority was to find successors, according to the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily.
Guangdong officials said the new guidelines were not to protect the suspects.
Shen Guiji, deputy director of the Guangdong People’s Procuratorate’s political department, said “general crimes” referred only to those that were relatively minor.
No guidelines were mentioned to define a “minor” offence.
“We are mainly aiming to guarantee smooth business operations,” he was quoted by the New Express as saying.
Netizens quickly weighed into the issue with their views: 91.7 per cent of nearly 27,000 people who had responded to a sina.com survey by late yesterday afternoon opposed the policy.
They said the guidelines broke the principle of “equality before the law” and no “special groups” should be protected, even during an economic slowdown.
1 comment:
Justice is Truly Blind for Guangdong Bosses
Ivan Zhai
8 January 2009
Guangdong officials say they are willing to look the other way if key businesspeople and technical personnel are accused of minor crimes, in an effort to help the province ride out the economic downturn and maintain social stability.
The provincial prosecutors’ office announced on Tuesday that to “guarantee the stable development of the economy”, law and order authorities, such as the Public Security Bureau, might not detain or arrest legal representatives of businesses, daily operations chiefs, and technical staff who are suspected of “general crimes”.
According to a statement posted on its website, the prosecutors’ office urged all lower-level branches to follow new guidelines to help businesses in difficulty, saying the goal was to advance Guangdong’s economic development.
For example, lower-level prosecutors were not allowed to randomly “freeze enterprises’ bank accounts” or “publish stories that might affect enterprises’ reputations”.
It also said investigations would not be allowed to directly affect the negotiations or work of companies that were involved in large-scale projects.
As one of the provinces hit worst by the global financial crisis, Guangdong has come up with various policies to ease pressure on the business community.
On Sunday, the provincial Communist Party committee’s Commission for Discipline Inspection announced that police and prosecutors must not undermine social stability when punishing the heads of state-owned enterprises.
It said prosecutors’ offices would be required to report the results of investigations into state-owned companies to relevant party committees and governments.
If the bosses had to be replaced or detained, the top priority was to find successors, according to the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily.
Guangdong officials said the new guidelines were not to protect the suspects.
Shen Guiji, deputy director of the Guangdong People’s Procuratorate’s political department, said “general crimes” referred only to those that were relatively minor.
No guidelines were mentioned to define a “minor” offence.
“We are mainly aiming to guarantee smooth business operations,” he was quoted by the New Express as saying.
Netizens quickly weighed into the issue with their views: 91.7 per cent of nearly 27,000 people who had responded to a sina.com survey by late yesterday afternoon opposed the policy.
They said the guidelines broke the principle of “equality before the law” and no “special groups” should be protected, even during an economic slowdown.
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