"Legal scholars and criminal-defense lawyers say local authorities, under pressure to deliver results, sometimes blur the lines between criminal syndicates—which face heavy penalties for severe offenses—and legitimate companies that engaged in illegal behavior."
in the dystopian world of contemporary china, the law applies to businesses
The case against Mr. Zhang and others like it have alarmed some entrepreneurs and legal experts, who say the Communist Party’s zealous enforcement threatens to undermine the private sector.
:surprised-pika: i cant believe the communists are doing communist things
ha ha ha, the WSJ has been trying to align mainstream american interests with corporate america for a while now and every article fails spectacularly
It gets even better:
"Mr. Zhang couldn’t be reached for comment. His lawyers said the allegations against him neither fit the government’s definitions of organized crime nor involved serious violence. While acknowledging that some of Mr. Zhang’s employees used coercive methods to deal with business disputes, the lawyers said these employees caused only minor injuries in one instance, and their actions therefore didn’t meet the legal criteria of routinely using violence to oppress and cause harm to the public."
The emphasis is mine. China is genociding organized crime. This is truly draconian.
"organised crime should be allowed to self regulate the state being involved would only serve to hamper entrepreneurial spirit"
You see one is a crime syndicate that does business on the side, the other is a business that does crime on the side.
ah, dang, i could have sworn i pasted the achived link but i didn't, sorry
https://archive.ph/maV75
