August 28
One country, two systems, and the same method of intimidation
Not many people have noticed this, it seems; but I have just called my colleague the legal editor of my publication, and asked him to see if we can get a hand on this story next week: FoxConn, the Taiwanese company and manufacturer of iPod, has taken two Shanghai journalists to court and frozen their assets for writing stories about its the sweatshop labor conditions in the company's iPod factories in Shanghai.
I was simply shocked and confused when I first read this on Saturday's Beijing Times; but now that I've read from ESWN about what the same company did to a Taiwanese journalist for the same "offence", it all starts to come together. Terry Guo (Guo Taiming), Taiwans' richest man and the boss of Hon Hai Precision Industrial who is in turn the parent company of FoxConn, has been very good and consistent at this: you run negative coverage of my sweatshops in China, I sue you for an amount of money you cannot wish to make in your entire life, whether you are a British, Taiwanese or Chinese journalist. In the case of the two Shanghai journalist defendants, editor Weng Bao and reporter Wang You of the China Business Times, the damages asked for were 10 million yuan (US$ 1.25 mil) and 20 million yuan (US$ 2.5 mil) respectively.
The reason that I am so angry about this is not only that FoxConn and Guo chose to list the journalists themselves as defendants, but that a Chinese court would be stupid enough to consent to this and proceed to freeze the journalists' personal assets. As the Beijing News story quoted a Renmin University law professor as saying, Chinese law doesn't even support such a claim: according to a judicial interpretation issued by the Supreme Court in 1993 on libel cases, if the literary work at dispute is written by full-time journalists while fulfilling their work duties -- reporting and writing for their newspaper, in this case -- then only the employer i.e. the newspaper, should be listed as the defendant. The journalists are entitled to petitioning the court and lift the freeze on their personal assets and they have done so. The court has yet to respond. The Beijing News story didn't say which STUPID, STUPID court in Shanghai did this; but come to think about it, it's not that much of a surprise -- Shanghai has always been ultra-friendly to Taiwanese businesses and businessmen, and Hon Hai is probably the biggest overseas investor in the mainland. So what we have here, barring too rash a conclusion, is PROBABLY a case of the local judiciary bowing to a powerful investor and taxpayer.
But what the heck? We are still TWO SYSTEMS you idiots! I don't know what Taiwanese law supported the freezing of the Taiwanese journalist's assets in the first place, but this is the People's Republic of China! which, despite everything, does have a sensible judicial interpretation that can be applied in this case. I suspect both the idiotic Shanghai court and the EVIL, EVIL Taiwanese company will soon realize their farce and do the right thing -- retreat with their tails between their legs and "settle" this case. But before that, I would really like to see the Chinese press do more on this than a couple of stories buried in the weekend business sections. Hey, this is only a Taiwanese company and threatend lawsuits for a couple of dozen millions. Certainly no Chinese court has ever granted that much in damages in any libel case!
I had even thought of making a plea to Apple Computers asking them put some pressure on Hon Hai; but then I realized that while the majority of us on the Internet adore this company's products, Apple hasn't exactly been a model corporate citizen when it comes to supporting freedom of speech, given its rage and legal vengeance over blogsphere leaks of its unveiled products. Probably no help on that front.
Update: OK, my premise was not exactly true: by Monday, everybody has noticed this latest controversy and Sina News has even set up a special section dedicated to this.The China Business Times in a quasi-editorial openly condemns FoxConn's intimidation tactics and calls for help from the Chinese press circles. They certainly have my sympathy this time. Time to flex our muscles and kick some blood-sucker ass, brothers!
Tools 
Help
