In August 2007, Hu Xing, former deputy director of the Yunnan
Provincial Transport Department, was sentenced to life imprisonment
for abusing his city construction planning authority regarding real
estate development and expressway project approvals; he was found
to have accepted more than 40 million yuan (US$5.55
million)?in bribes. One of the bribers, Chen Zuyuan, who had
bribed Hu with 32 million yuan (US$4.44 million), the largest sum
for any individual involved in the case, obtained bail pending
trial. Chen is the board chairman of the Anyuan Investment
Corporation in Shenzhen.
Light or even no punishment for people who provide bribes has
aroused attention from law experts and the public as more and more
bribery scandals have been disclosed.
According to the revised Criminal Law adopted in 1997, an act
shall be prosecuted if the value of the bribe by an individual is
equal to or over 10,000 yuan and the value of the bribe by an
organization is equal to or exceeds 200,000 yuan. But during actual
implementation, those who offer bribes are sometimes granted undue
leniency compared with those who receive bribes, the Legal
Daily reported on January 27.
Some law experts assert that the criminal code defines the crime
of bribery as "efforts to obtain an unjust gain." But in reality,
it is difficult to ascertain the boundary between "just" and
"unjust." Additionally, during investigations it is often necessary
to expose criminal activity via the bribers, and as such, the
disciplinary and procedural inspection agencies will often agree to
exchange full disclosure for a lesser punishment or to waive the
punishment altogether. Nowadays, more and more organizations are
involved in bribery cases. It is hard to confirm which subject
should be prosecuted. Light punishment with huge benefits entices
people to violate laws.
Experts also suggest that Chinese courts should hand down severe
sentences to "major" bribers whose activities resulted in "serious
social harm".
(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan, January 28, 2008)