International Law

Miscellaneous China Litigation

By Stan

Been waiting on this one for a while now:

A Chinese farmer who claimed to have taken photos of a rare tiger was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Saturday for faking the pictures, a court official and state media said.

Zhou Zhenglong was tried for fraud in Xunyang County People’s Court in Shaanxi province Saturday morning and was sentenced a little over five hours later, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Hard to explain just why this became such a huge story, but some folks were talking about nothing else for a while here. Here are some background facts if you’re not up on the details:

According to official media accounts, Zhou, aged 54, heard that a reward of about $146,000 had been offered to anyone who found an endangered South China tiger in the wild, where one had not been seen for more than 20 years.

Last October, he emerged from the woods in Shaanxi with his claim of a tiger sighting, plus dozens of digital photos. The provincial forestry department rewarded him with $2,900.

While first intrigued, China’s online community quickly exposed the animal as a paper tiger — an old poster propped up among the trees — because it was too shiny and did not change its position no matter where it was snapped.

The public called for an official investigation when someone produced an old poster with a photo that looked strikingly like Zhou’s tiger and posted it online.

Police arrested him after seizing the old tiger poster, which Zhou allegedly borrowed from a farmer in another village, Xinhua said. They also found a wooden model of a tiger claw that Zhou allegedly used to fake a paw print in the snow, it said.

Hey, fraud on the public, that’s a big no no. Notwithstanding this "closure" of the matter, people are still complaining about the local officials, who may have encouraged Zhou’s activities. I don’t know enough to say, and I’m too scared to venture an opinion — the true believers out there might track me down.

Here’s another good one that’s gotten slightly less attention (despite the salaciousness factor):

Ren Chaoqi, the Nanyang resident who was fined 1,900 yuan when police discovered an adult film stored on his computer, has been given a reprieve.

Following an uproar among netizens and considerable attention from the media, police have reconsidered his punishment and have cancelled his fine.

Although this is welcome news for Ren, who was most concerned with the size of the fine, it neatly sidesteps what observers saw as the critical issue in the case: a conflict between the law, which says nothing about personal viewing of pornography, and an administrative regulation that bars it.

You gotta feel sorry for the guy. Apparently his wife keeps talking up the case to people, making him embarrassed big time. Here’s the best part:

As for the reduced punishment of "criticism and education," Ren told the media:

There really wasn’t any criticism. Mostly it was that I should try not to watch so much porn in the future.

Easier said than done, eh? Anyway, the result here is that the government is rightly punishing fraud and letting people watch porn. That’s as it should be.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on September 28, 2008 (boomark / email).