Chinese cuilture and laws are very different from the US

Rightardia comment: These three stories indicate that Chinese culture and law is very different from the US.  Justice is quickly dispensed including the death penalty. The Chinese government has a very low tolerance for graft and corruption. The large population of China may explain some of the differences.

In the first story Chen Guojun, 40, vice president of the privately owned Jianlong Heavy Machinery Group in Beijing, had gone to Tonghua in Northeast China's Jilin province to inform staff at the city's largest employer about an agreed takeover deal.

He addressed them shortly before noon and by 11 pm that night he was dead - beaten to death by a gang of disgruntled workers.

A police taskforce has been set up to investigate who dealt the fatal blows but eyewitnesses claimed protesters attempted to halt the plant's production lines before Chen, who was expected to become general manager of a joint venture, reportedly told rioters: "If you do not kill me today, I promise you will not even get a bowl of vegetable soup to drink."

He then fled to a workers' dormitory where he was discovered by a gang of protestors and brutally attacked. He died later in hospital.

Since Chen's death, officials from Tonghua Iron and Steel, Jianlong Heavy Machinery and the local government have refused to comment. Only one media conference has been staged, organized three days later by the provincial State-owned assets supervision and administration commission.

Police have also refused to disclose any information related to the investigation or if any suspects have been detained.

The lack of transparency has led many experts to question the cause of the tragedy, including Zhong, a veteran mergers and acquisitions researcher for the State Council Development Research Center, a central government think-tank.

"Police should look at who was possibly hidden behind this bloodshed," said Zhong, who gave only his surname. He has urged police to investigate Tonghua's five-member senior management team, who would have all likely been ousted had the takeover been completed.

"The team possesses about 1 percent of the firm's share-holding rights," said the expert, who has been involved in helping streamline China's policing of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) since the early 1990s. "That might not be a huge amount, but it meant a lot if the Tonghua-Jianlong merger did not go ahead. It makes them key decision makers and they would not have wanted to lose their jobs.

Zhong  has been involved in several cases when private firms have taken over money-losing SOEs and said they can be fraught with tension if not handled correctly.

"Conflicts between the management team of the SOE and the private company are not uncommon, while SOE bosses sometimes plot protests or incidents to stall deals," he added. "Thankfully the number of incidents is decreasing as most SOEs have already been bought up or accomplished ownership reforms."

Just 5 percent of all firms in China today are State-owned, according to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. In 1978, at the start of the nation's reform and opening up, it was almost 99 percent.

In a a second story Li Peiying, former chief of the Capital Airports Holding Company (CAH) who was convicted of taking bribes and embezzlement, was executed Friday in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, according to the Supreme People's Court.

The execution came one month after the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court upheld the death sentence against Li's appeal. The supreme court had reviewed the sentence.

Li, 60, former chairman and general manager of CAH, was sentenced at Jinan Intermediate People's Court on February 6 after being convicted of accepting bribes of 26.61 million yuan (3.9 million US dollars) from 1995 to 2003 and misappropriating 82.5 million yuan for personal use from 2000 to 2003.

Li appealed to the Shandong Provincial Higher People's Court after the conviction. The provincial court rejected Li's appeal and upheld the death penalty.

 According to law, the death sentence has to be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court before it is enforced.

Rightardia also reported last week  that another case last week. Sun Weiming, who was drunk and did not have a valid driver's license when he killed four people and injured one in Sichuan province last year. He was handed a death sentence by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court after being found guilty of endangering public safety.

He is believed to be the first drunk driver in the country to be charged with "endangering public safety" and sentenced to death.

A lesser and more common charge would be "a traffic offense" with a maximum penalty of seven years.

The court's verdict has sent a clear signal that drink drivers can expect harsher punishment, but some legal experts caution against the extreme penalty that they think is too severe.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-08/06/content_8532836.htm

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-08/06/content_8532836.htm

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-08/07/content_8542177.htm

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