To hear Chinese authorities tell it, Wang Zhendong is a danger to society, the worst kind of person, one who took advantage of his fellow citizens naivete and trust. Last month, a court here gave him the death penalty for his crimes. Wangs misdeed: selling overpriced ant farms to the public.

I’m a criminal defense lawyer that was first introduced into criminal law through an internship that I had after my second year of law school working for a non-profit in China. Since then, I have been trying to follow the development of Chinese criminal law as best I can. I now feel I have a more then rudimentary collection of events/experiences that I hope will expose just what it is like in the criminal justice system of contemporary China. Today is Part 1 of what I hope will be an ongoing series of posts that illustrate the Chinese way. Be warned though…this is simply my personal observations not to be confused with hardcore scientific research. In any event, the above article is interesting to me in that it gives a glimpse of what in the US would be considered “White-Collar crime” (although…the tools used to injure are your “garden variety” ants) but where the penalty is a counter to the trend in many US jurisdictions…death. Point to emphasize: in China, stealing a persons money in many instances is worse then murder.

Ant Fraud Yields Death Sentence