Chinese Law Prof Blog

Chongqing man busted for satirical poem

A Xinhua item dated Oct. 20 reports as follows:

A minor government officer in Southwest China has been arrested for mocking officials in mobile and internet messages, reported Friday's The Beijing News.

Qin Zhongfei, an official with the Pengshui county education commission in Chongqing, sent a satirical poem to several friends by phone and internet in August.

The poem poked fun at three local leading officials for embroiling the county in "fierce conflicts between officials and the people".

Ma Ping, former head of the county Party committee and one of the three officials satirized in the poem, was detained at the end of August on charges of corruption.

Local police visited Qin later that month, ransacked his office and later took away his computer. He was detained on charges of "slander".

During interrogation, Qin insisted that the poem did not target anybody specifically and was not written out of any political motive.

Meng Dehua, deputy Party head of Pengshui county, was quoted as saying that "Qin's problem is serious. It even involves illegal association." But he did not give details to back up the assertion.

Qin has obtained bail and is awaiting trial.

The Southern Weekend report (in Chinese) is here.

This case has the potential to develop into something of a cause celebre; apparently there has been no central government decision to suppress reporting. Let's see what happens.

AmCham-China's comments on draft Labor Contract Law

I recently got hold of the comments submitted by the American Chamber of Commerce People's Republic of China (AmCham-China) on the draft Labor Contract Law. The comments don't specify which version of the draft they are commenting on, but it seems to be the version dated March 20, 2006. Here are the relevant documents:

• Labor Contract Law (March 20, 2006 draft) (in Chinese)
• AmCham-China comments (April 19, 2006) (in English and Chinese)

Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs: Call for submissions

I have received the following announcement:

Call for Submissions

The Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs
commenced publication in 1981 under the auspices of the Chinese
(Taiwan) Society of International Law. The Yearbook publishes on
multi-disciplinary topics with a focus on international and
comparative law issues regarding Taiwan, Mainland China and
cross-strait relations. In addition, the Yearbook is considered to be
one of the foremost publications in the world concentrating on issues
of greater China.

The Yearbook accepts submissions of articles, comments and book
reviews.  Although we do not have a limit on article length, we
encourage the submission of articles under 25,000 words or 50 journal
pages, including text and footnotes. Authors are requested to conform
to the latest version of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.
In addition, the Pinyin system of translation should be used in
reference to publications in Chinese.

We strongly prefer electronic submissions of manuscripts. Please
attach the manuscript, a cover letter and a resume in Word format to
an e-mail to csil@seed.net.tw . Alternatively, we also accept paper
submissions. Please send manuscripts to the following address:

Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs
Attn: Professor Chun-i CHEN
P.O. Box 1-556 Wenshan, Taipei 116
Taiwan ROC

Editorial Board,
Volume 23, Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs

Did Microsoft deliberately allow its products to be pirated in China?

For an intriguing quasi-conspiracy theory to this effect, see this post on the DiligenceChina blog.

Gao Zhisheng finally charged

Activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng, detained in mid-August and formally arrested (daibu 逮捕) on Sept. 21 (daibu in Chinese criminal procedure is a technical term that does not correspond to the practical question of whether you have been forcibly detained by the police), has now finally been told the charge against him: inciting subversion. For the full New York Times story, click here (free registration required).

Latest issue of China Law Reporter available

The latest issue of the ABA Section on International Law's China Law Reporter (vol. 2, no. 1, Oct. 2006) is now available here: Download ChinaLawReporterVol2No1Oct2006.pdf