Features

China issues rules to clean up courts

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) issued a new regulation on 27 January in an effort to prevent abuse of judicial power and fight corruption. The move came after Huang Song-you, the former SPC vice president, was sentenced to life imprisonment for taking bribes and embezzlement. Under the regulation, judiciary staff will be punished if they are found meddling and intervening in court cases, giving bribes to law enforcement personnel, beating or verbally abusing petitioners and over-running timetables to enforce court rulings. They will also be punished if they commit adultery or have sexual relations with litigants or relatives of litigants. According to the regulations, judiciary staff will receive punishments ranging from demerits on their records to demotion, removal from posts and dismissal.

China extends anti-dumping measures on phenol

The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced that it would extend anti-dumping measures by five years on imports of phenol from Japan, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan. Phenol is a chemical compound used in the production of medicine, plastics, pesticides and synthetic resins. In 2009, the MOC decided to review the measures in response to applications from domestic phenol companies. It stated that if anti-dumping measures were discontinued, the dumping of phenol might continue to hurt the domestic phenol industry.

New laws outlaw forced evictions

China’s Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council has outlined major changes to the way in which land can be seized for redevelopment such as for national defence, key national energy projects, transportation and education. Under the draft regulations,
using violence and coercion, for example, by cutting off the houses’ water or power supply to make people move, would be banned, and owners would be able to appeal against evictions. The draft also provides that the demolition of dangerous and old buildings that need to be upgraded should not be carried out unless 90% of the house
owners approve the proposal, and compensation to the owners should not be less than the market price of similar houses.

New judicial interpretation hits all online pornography profiteers

The Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has issued a second judicial interpretation concerning online porn businesses for profit. The rule is targeted at all interested parties, extending possible penalties upstream as far as telecommunications companies and third-party payment platforms. The new rule is intended to serve as a supplement to its predecessor which was released in September 2004. The first interpretation had only put websites at the end link of the interest chain.

Police shuts down hacker training website

Police in Hubei province have reportedly arrested three people suspected of running a hacker site known as the Black Hawk Safety Net, which had recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and collected more than RMB7 million (HK$7.96 million) in membership fees. Members paid for training on how to hack computers, with the company also offering downloads of hacker tools and trojan software. According to a report released by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Centre of China, the hacker industry caused losses of RMB7.6 billion (US$1.11 billion) in 2009.