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[Lawyer’s Perspective] The Blurred Lines Between Genuine and Fake “Elegant Bribery” in Official Corruption Cases

“Elegant bribery” is not uncommon in cases of official misconduct, and some of the news reports that have appeared in the media are truly eye-opening. In practice, elegant bribery exhibits several distinctive features: First, certain criminal methods are indeed highly concealed—or might even be described as “sophisticated”—making them extremely difficult to detect and prosecute. Second, legally speaking, elegant bribery involves issues such as errors in perception, the consistency between subjective intent and objective actions, and the distinction between completed and attempted crimes. Moreover, at times it can be exceedingly challenging to differentiate between genuine and fake items, rendering these cases particularly complex and perplexing. Third, given the unique trading norms and industry traditions that have evolved over thousands of years around calligraphy, paintings, antiques, and other such artifacts, simply applying criminal law to certain situations could inadvertently disrupt this time-honored sector. Consequently, it is not easy to draw a clear line between cracking down on such behavior and safeguarding the integrity of the relevant industries. This article seeks to analyze and explore the issues surrounding elegant bribery.

[Lawyer’s Perspective] The Liability and Risks of the Person Being Relyed Upon in the Construction Engineering Field

In the field of construction projects, it is quite common for enterprises, driven by their own interests, to lend their qualification certificates to other entities for use. However, the practice of an actual contractor without proper qualifications borrowing the name of a qualified construction company to undertake projects is explicitly prohibited by laws and regulations—it constitutes an illegal “nominal subcontracting” arrangement. In practice, although the entity being sub-contracted often employs various measures to actively evade legal risks, it frequently finds itself embroiled in numerous lawsuits due to the inherent illegality of the nominal subcontracting arrangement itself, as well as the lack of clear definitions for what constitutes such an arrangement, its diverse forms, unclear standards for rights and obligations, and significant disagreements over liability allocation. As a result, the entity being sub-contracted faces substantial legal risks. Therefore, this article, from the perspective of the entity being sub-contracted, combines selected judicial viewpoints to provide a brief analysis of the risks and liabilities it confronts.

[Lawyer’s Perspective] A Brief Analysis of the Obligations Regarding the Accuracy and Completeness of Quantity Takeoffs—and the Impact of the New Quantity Takeoff Pricing Rules on Construction Dispute Cases (Part 1)

The “Standard for Pricing of Quantity Takeoffs in Construction Projects” (GB/T50500-2024) will come into effect on September 1, 2025. Compared with the “Norm for Pricing of Quantity Takeoffs in Construction Projects” (GB50500-2013), this new standard includes numerous revisions, additions, and deletions, significantly impacting measurement and pricing activities throughout the processes of project contracting, implementation, settlement, and review (audit). To this end, the author, drawing on practical experience from handling construction project dispute cases, will introduce these changes one by one. Here, we provide a brief analysis of practical issues such as “the responsible parties for the obligation to ensure the accuracy and completeness of quantity takeoffs (hereinafter referred to as the ‘takeoff obligation’), as well as their corresponding legal implications, precautions, and risk mitigation measures.”

[Lawyer’s Perspective] Reflections on How Administrative Agencies Can Effectively Reduce the Number of Administrative Review Cases—Some Recommendations for Municipal and Prefectural Government Departments

Recently, during a communication meeting with our advisory clients regarding administrative penalty matters, it was noted that an increasing number of cases in which administrative counterparts have filed applications for administrative reconsideration against administrative enforcement actions have become a growing challenge for current administrative law enforcement.

[Lawyer’s Perspective] What a Legal Professional Thought About While Reflecting on the Textile Factory Arson Case

It’s been a little over two months since the arson incident at the bustling textile factory. The real reason I’m writing this article only now is due to a small, personal circumstance. Two months ago, Xiao Tian from the School of Law at Beijing University of Science and Technology came to our team for a summer internship. At the time, just to gauge Xiao Tian’s legal expertise, I asked her to write an article for me to take a look at. As it happened, the textile-factory arson case had occurred not long before, so I suggested that Xiao Tian write an article on that very topic. She did, and when I read it, I thought her writing was quite good—though it differed somewhat from my own perspective. I think I even said something along the lines of, “I’ll revise the article a bit and then publish it on the ‘Haibo Criminal Defense’ WeChat public account.” But somehow, I never got around to doing that. Now that Xiao Tian’s two-month summer internship is almost over, I suddenly remembered this project—and decided to finally see it through. That’s how this article came to be.

[Lawyer’s Perspective] Chinese Judges’ Judgments vs. U.S. Judges’ Short Videos—Warmth and Kindness Across Different Legal Traditions

In the past couple of days, two incidents have been circulating with considerable buzz within legal circles: One is an incomplete copy of a judgment issued by the People’s Court of a certain county in southwestern China, involving a construction contract dispute; the other is a series of short videos documenting the trial of the late Frank Caprio, former judge of the Providence Municipal Court in Rhode Island, USA, along with memoirs paying tribute to Judge Frank. In the judgment on the construction contract dispute issued by the People’s Court of that county in southwestern China, the court employed straightforward, unadorned political logic and factual rationality to evaluate and reject the defendant’s defense based on the statute of limitations—though such a defense might otherwise have been legally valid. In the short videos of Judge Frank’s trials that have been widely shared, most episodes feature Judge Frank engaging in witty and insightful conversations with the defendants about their lives, ultimately dismissing the charges against them. If there’s any common thread between these two cases, it’s precisely how both approached the interplay between natural justice, human sentiment, objective facts, and legal provisions—and how they arrived at judgments that were accepted by the parties involved and widely endorsed by the public.