Every Man Has His Price
Chinese police have finished the investigation into four employees of the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto, who are in custody on suspicion of illegally obtaining business secrets and taking bribes. The case is now in the hands of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate, who has 45 days to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to take the case to trial. The four employees are Australian citizen Stern Hu (Hu Shitai), who before being detained by Shanghai's security bureau worked as an executive at Rio Tinto's Shanghai Office, and three local employees Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong. The statement was made yesterday five months after the arrests were made. According to Chinese law investigations must be wrapped up within two months, but due to special circumstances investigations may be extended up to three months. One of the lawyers representing the defendant says that he is certain that the case will make it to court. The maximum sentence for obtaining business secrets is no more than seven years. I'm not really sure of what the American equivalent of this is so, but seven years feels like not very much for something that was obviously giving this company a leg up.http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/Politics/2010/01/12/160443.shtml
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This is so effed up. When we compare blue collar society to working class there is such an obvious discrepancy. Only seven years in jail? And that's the maximum! I bet you anything the executive will get in less trouble than the local employees, who were probably just pawns in the bigger scam, due to there financial support.
ReplyDeleteThere has been an increase in white collar crime in China over the past few years. China has tried to enact very severe laws against corruption by extending the jail time if convicted as well as making the punishment more extreme, but it seems that nobody is getting discouraged.
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