Opinion | Free judiciary from party reins
The prostitution scandal involving Shanghai judges shone light on the legal system's rot, but graft will persist until the courts are independent
For any ordinary mainlander who is neither rich nor well-connected but finds himself ensnared in the mainland's corruption-riddled judiciary, he is most likely ready to admit defeat, particularly if both the plaintiff and his lawyer turn out to be relatives of a powerful judge.
But an operator of a budget hotel in Shanghai has refused to take defeat lying down. Armed with spy gadgets including a pair of miniature cameras mounted on glasses and eavesdropping devices purchased online, he spent more than a year following a judge who was known as a regular patron of nightclubs and prostitutes.
On August 1, the hotel sleuth who refused to give his real name posted an edited version of the tape online. Not only did he exact his sweet revenge on the judge whom he had followed for more than a year and often met in passing, but also triggered a national uproar over the country's court system.
One commentary, which said the judges may have slept with prostitutes but had raped the law, was widely circulated online, reflecting the depth of anger among mainlanders.
The Shanghai authorities reacted swiftly. On Tuesday, Chen and Zhao, chief and deputy chief of the No1 Civil Court of the Shanghai Higher People's Court, and another court official who was ironically charged with the task of investigating other court officials for corruption, were sacked and stripped of their Communist Party membership.
The fourth man filmed, Wang Guojun, a deputy chief of the No5 Civil Court, was placed on probation and will merely lose his job title. According to state media, Wang was saved by the skin of his teeth because he drank too much and went straight to sleep on the night in question.