CHINA UPDATES CRIMINAL CODE WITH NEW OFFENSES.Byline: Seth Faison The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times China's legislature unveiled a major revision of its criminal law Thursday, introducing new offenses like money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. and insider trading, and eliminating the overtly political category of ``counterrevolutionary'' crimes. The first significant revision of the nation's criminal code since 1979, Thursday's changes reflect an effort by an authoritarian state to grapple with to enter into contest with, resolutely and courageously. See also: Grapple the new kinds of crimes that are emerging as China becomes a more open society, as well as to handle old crimes in a more professional way. Much as the reforms were presented as a step toward establishing a rule of law in China, they are more like laying out the skeleton of a modern legal system without providing any flesh. While they reflect a desire by China's judicial officials to be more competent, the new items are not expected to change the defining characteristic of Chinese courts: deciding cases based on guidance from Communist Party officials rather than on legal opinion. It is a coincidence that the legal reforms, which are expected to be approved by the National People's Congress
Yet like Deng's death and the political transition it symbolizes, Thursday's legal reforms are a figurative step toward greater professionalism without changing the essence of a system that is still run in an old-fashioned way, by a small, secretive and authoritarian group of Communist Party leaders. Most notable among Thursday's legal revisions was the decision to abandon counterrevolutionary coun·ter·rev·o·lu·tion n. 1. A revolution whose aim is the deposition and reversal of a political or social system set up by a previous revolution. 2. A movement to oppose revolutionary tendencies and developments. crimes as a legal category. Counterrevolutionary crimes, widely used in the past to prosecute political cases, have been criticized for years by Chinese legal experts as a form that has no basis in modern legal theory. Counterrevolutionary essentially meant something considered a threat to China's leaders, who once defined their cause as revolutionary but gave up on that ideology some time ago. It is a vague, catchall catch·all n. 1. A receptacle or storage area for odds and ends. 2. Something that encompasses a wide variety of items or situations: term that even the authorities had to admit was imprecise and outdated. ``Revision of the crimes of counterrevolution coun·ter·rev·o·lu·tion n. 1. A revolution whose aim is the deposition and reversal of a political or social system set up by a previous revolution. 2. A movement to oppose revolutionary tendencies and developments. is made out of the consideration that China has left the era of revolution to enter the era of construction,'' said Wang Hanbin, a vice chairman of the Congress Standing Committee. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion