China Rises -- The TV Show/"Food Is Heaven"

I just watched two more episodes of the highly publicized new four part TV series, "China Rises."  I watched the episodes entitled, "Food is Heaven," which focused on the centrality of both the quality of food in Chinese culture and on the difficulty so many in China still have in just getting enough to eat and I watched "Party Games," which focused on Beijing getting ready for the 2008 Olympics.  Both episodes were excellent.   

The following two things from the "Food is Heaven" episode stood out for me:

1.   I often wondered how China could have so many great restaurants despite the Cultural Revolution.  How could there be so many great chefs and incredible restaurants in China when the Cultural Revolution (and even the entire period under Mao) looked so askance at anything as bourgeois as great food?  This episode answered this question for me.  Food is so much a part of Chinese culture that I now realize it was silly of me to have thought any government could have annihilated something so important and ingrained.      

2.  This episode did a story on fish farms wiped out by pollution emanating from an up river leather factory.  The story focused on a Beijing lawyer trying to determine whether he had enough evidence to sue the leather factory for damages on behalf of the fish farmers. This Beijing lawyer has won about half of his 70 environmental cases against Chinese companies.  The lawyer talked about how the leather factory was violating the law but corrupt local authorities were ignoring the violations.  This lawyer's success rate bolsters my view and that the Chinese courts generally rule fairly in business disputes.  The Beijing central government controls China's courts and Beijing generally wants corrupt local party hacks reigned in. 

I found it interesting that the lawyer used the same methods and case analysis one would expect a United States lawyer to use.  The lawyer was testing the water, interviewing witnesses, and making a video showing the factory's discharge.  The lawyer talked again and again about the need for evidence.  One should conclude from this that the Chinese courts, like those in the west, focus on the evidence in deciding how to rule in business cases.

The "Party Games" episode makes clear, however, that the Chinese courts work far less well (or not at all) in dealing with an overzealous government.  Chinese law and courts are of virtually no use when challenging the Beijing government and its policies.  This episode focused on a lawyer and his wife and her friend who had sued over the razing of a Shanghai apartment for development.  The plaintiffs lost their case (which by all rights they should have won) and the lawyer was imprisoned for three years and his wife and her friend were constantly followed and harassed for having  brought it.

This series' portrayal of China's legal system jibes with my firm's own experiences with business issues in Chinese courts.  The Chinese courts (in China's business cities) are thorough and fair in dealing with business disputes, even if those disputes involve a "connected" local factory and even if those disputes involve a foreign party.  Chinese judges are well paid and closely monitored from Beijing in an effort to avoid corruption.  Beijing uses the courts to extend its own powers and Chinese judges generally look to Beijing in determining how to rule. Beijing wants business in China to function smoothly and business functions smoothly when courts rule fairly in business disputes. 

China's courts, are however, of little to no use in cases involving the legality of Beijing government actions or policies.  The courts support the center or, at best, will not cross it.  The Communist Party takes priority over China's constitution and the courts accede to this.  A few months ago, while in Qingdao, I asked a couple of top Qingdao lawyers what would happen if a Qingdao judge were to issue a ruling that went against a higher court decision out of Beijing. The lawyers told me they were unaware of that ever having happened and they could not even imagine it.  They found my question funny.

Bottom Line:  China's courts are surprisingly good at handling business disputes, but do not expect to use them against the government or its policies.