The country's top judicial bodies have redefined the scope of
bribery in a stepped-up crackdown on increasing economic
crimes.
The revision is included in a judicial interpretation by the
Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate
released on Tuesday that covers 22 new crime categories - 14 new
and eight revisions.
It is in accordance with two amendments to the Chinese Criminal
Law issued in November 2005 and June 2006.
Previously, the Criminal Law stipulated that bribery crimes were
limited to government officials or employees of State or private
companies.
However, the incidence of bribery in other areas has been
getting worse in recent years, Ni Shouming, spokesman for the
highest court, said.
Courts and prosecutors often faced a dilemma in handling cases
that involve people such as a private school principal taking
bribes for enrolment, a sports club manager getting money from
bidders for a construction project or a judge at an art contest
favoring certain contestants who have greased his palms.
For example, in 2002, eight soccer referees were accused of
taking various amounts of money to fix matches - leading to a
national outcry - but only one was taken to court and found
guilty.
Qu Xinjiu, a professor in criminal law at the Chinese University
of Politics and Law, said: "The bribery revision has broadened the
scope of such crimes, and will help deter those in important
positions from misusing their authority."
The number of commercial bribery cases dealt with by Chinese
courts rose to 4,406 in the first seven months, 8.2 percent more
than the same period of last year, the SPC said in September.
Nearly 95 percent of the total involved civil servants.
Among the new categories of crime are: Endangering public
safety, not reporting or falsely reporting accidents, filing for
bankruptcy under false pretenses or organizing begging gangs using
the handicapped or children.
The revised list deals mostly with financial and securities
transactions.
(China Daily November 8, 2007)