Thursday, August 5, 2010

Chinese (In)justice

The following quote from an article on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website today, 5th August 2010, concerns me greatly. This sort of secret justice is not justice; it is not even a parody of justice; it is plain simple injustice. What have the Chinese officials got to hide? Why the secrecy? Why can’t Chinese citizens and others for that matter, read or hear what was said by whom and what the people concerned actually did and why and how it harmed the Chinese people – if it harmed them at all? I am particularly concerned about the last sentence with the Court official requesting anonymity. Poor man – he must be terrified but of what? Being attacked by family members, or by the companies concerned?

“By ABC China correspondent Stephen McDonell
Chinese steel company executives have been jailed for leaking sensitive information to Stern Hu and other Rio Tinto staff. Hu and three other Rio Tinto executives were given hefty jail sentences earlier this year in part for bribing local steel company officials.

In return the Chinese executives handed Rio Tinto sensitive information said to have given the mining company an unfair advantage in price negotiations. Tan Yixin from Shougang has received a three-and-a-half-year sentence for leaking secrets to Rio Tinto.

Wang Hongjiu from Laiwu Steel was given four years. Both men were also hit with large fines.

Their hearings were held in secret and an official from Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court passed on the sentencing information to news agencies, requesting anonymity.”

If this is the “justice” that I could expect in China why would I want to deal with anyone in China? If I was a visitor to China and something happened which involved the police, how would I expect to be treated – in secret? Would I be able to argue my case in court and be heard by an impartial judge whose only concern is the rule of law? Or would the court proceedings be a political charade purporting to be justice? Would there be any possibility of an appeal to determine if a miscarriage of justice had occurred?

The Chinese authorities must determine what system of ‘Justice’ they wish to impose. To me justice is justice. There cannot be a Chinese Justice and an Australian Justice and an American Justice and some other country’s determination of justice. Surely anywhere in the world “right’ is “right” and “wrong” is “wrong”?. Or is Chinese ‘right” better than English “right”?

The great English jurist Justice William Blackstone (1723 – 1780) who wrote the famous ‘Commentaries on the Laws of England’, said, “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffers.”

I wonder if anyone would, today, write a ‘Commentary of the Laws of China’ and say the same thing?

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