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Report: Kunming court to handle crimes against the environmentWednesday, 24th September 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (2)
Kunming municipal officials intend to create a trial court which will only handle environment-related lawsuits, according to Chinese media reports. Should the court be approved by the local government, it will handle criminal, civil and administration cases related to crimes against the environment. Defendants found guilty of such crimes will be "given severe punishments and must treat the areas they have polluted to clean them up," according to the reports. The news comes shortly after reports of heavy arsenic contamination in Yangzonghai Lake. It is likely that a large percentage of the more than 26,000 people living around the lake had been ingesting arsenic-tainted water for years. Now the area is suffering a shortage of drinking water, with the government shipping in supplies (see image above). Local officials in Kunming and the counties of Yiliang and Chengjiang are now engaged in finger-pointing and responsibility dodging, according to the website china.org.cn. According to reports: According to a County official in charge of environmental protection, officials were unaware of the high levels of arsenic accumulation in Yangzonghai Lake until June 28, when they received calls from the Yunnan Provincial Government. "We do not monitor Yangzonghai Lake, since Kunming City is responsible for that. They provide all our data. In the past, we knew little about arsenic pollution," he said. However, an official from the Environmental Protection Bureau of Chengjiang County emphasized that they have been making efforts to monitor the Yunnan Chengjiang Jinye Corporation, but it refuses to abide by the relevant regulations. Between 2002 and 2008 the company has been fined six times for environmental pollution infringements. Although the maximum fine of 100,000 yuan (US$14,653.52) has been imposed several times, the sum is trivial in comparison to the company's profits. As China Environmental Law Blog puts it: Thus, this wasn't a case of turning a blind eye to polluters, it was a failure of the regulatory system to provide sufficient disincentives to pollution. In other words, the lake is polluted with arsenic because even maximum penalty amounts are so "trivial" that it makes economic sense to "pay to pollute." Yangzonghai relief image: china.org.cn Tags: Chengjiang, environment, law, pollution, Yangzonghai Lake, Yiliang China's biggest online gambling ring on trial in KunmingThursday, 12th June 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (1)
China's largest online gambling trial began yesterday at Kunming Intermediate People's Court, with 20 suspects facing charges for involvement in a gambling ring involving more than 8.6 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) in total wagers and more than 200 million yuan in profits – all illegal. According to a Kunming Daily report the case centers around two Hong Kong brothers Tan Zhiwei (谭志伟) and Tan Zhiman (谭志满), who allegedly established casinos in Myanmar in 1999, laying the foundation for an online betting network. The brothers allegedly built up an empire with more than 3,000 employees plus servers in the cities of Guangzhou and Dongguan in Guangdong province. One of the brothers' gambling sites attracted 5,198 registered users between August 2006 and March 2007, according to state prosecutors. The twenty defendants are charged with the crimes of operating casinos and disrupting social order. It is China's largest online gambling case in terms of the amount of money involved, the amount of people involved and the amount of area covered. It is also noteworthy for being the most technologically advanced online gambling ring broken up to date. One defendant is a former bank official at the Ruili branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) who allegedly opened hundreds of bank accounts for the gambling operation. Clients of the illegal operation were able to place bets in Myanmar, via phone calls or online, according to the report. Myanmar casino mobile phone photograph: news.cnnb.com.cn Tags: casinos, Dongguan, Guangzhou, ICBC, Kunming Intermediate People’s Court, law, Myanmar, online gambling, Tan Zhiman, Tan Zhiwei
Anti-CNN fervor in China has died down somewhat in recent days, but the movement still appears to have some legs, with one Kunming lawyer suing CNN and commentator Jack Cafferty for Cafferty's reference to China as "goons and thugs". Danwei reports: "…Life News, a Yunnan newspaper, reported on its front page about a Yunnan lawyer who has launched a lawsuit against CNN and its commentator Jack Cafferty. This is latest of a string of similar legal actions both in China and abroad." "The lawyer, Wu Kaiguo, filed a lawsuit with the Kunming Intermediate Court demanding a public apology by CNN on the "international mainstream media", and one yuan in damages. In an interview with the newspaper, the lawyer denied that self-promotion played any part in his motivation." Related article: Kunming protestors vent anger at Carrefour Tags: CNN, Jack Cafferty, law, Wu Kaiguo |
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