华尔街日报引用「无锡跨省趋利办理Hubdex案」：中国警察成为了资金短缺政府的新赚钱途径

WSJ: China’s Police Are the New Earners for Cash-Strapped Governments

Law-enforcement agencies have been imposing larger and more frequent fines for offenses

“执法机构已经对违法行为处以了更大额度和更频繁的罚款

By 作者 Chun Han Wong from Wall Street Journal Updated Sept. 12, 2023 11:39 pm ET

China’s sluggish economy is driving cash-strapped local governments to seek unconventional sources of revenue. Their law enforcers have emerged as some of their biggest earners.

中国的经济增长乏力，导致资金短缺的地方政府寻求非传统的收入来源。他们的执法者已成为其中的最大赚钱者。

Local police and other enforcement agencies across China have been imposing larger and more frequent fines for traffic offenses and business and safety-code violations, as well as other petty misdemeanors, as a way to pad local state coffers, according to state media.

根据国家媒体的报道，中国各地的地方警察和其他执法机构已经开始对交通违章、商业和安全规范违规以及其他轻微的不法行为处以更大额度和更频繁的罚款，作为给地方国库增加收入的方式。

In some cases, local police forces pursued cases with few obvious links to their own jurisdictions, even going after alleged offenders hundreds of miles away, in what lawyers and state media say are gambits to seize allegedly ill-gotten gains.

在某些情况下，地方警察部队追查与其辖区关系不大的案件，甚至对数百英里以外的涉嫌犯罪者进行追踪。律师和国家媒体表示，这些都是为了夺取所谓的不正当利益。

Earlier this year, police officers from China’s northeastern borderlands drove more than 600 miles to Beijing to detain senior executives of a video-streaming startup that they accused of engaging in illegal multilevel marketing. The company, Xueli Xingqiu, also known as Future Learning, in turn accused investigators of trumping up charges and overreaching their jurisdiction in a play for the startup’s assets.

今年早些时候，来自中国东北边境地区的警察驱车超过600英里来到北京，拘留了一个视频流媒体创业公司的高级执行官，他们被指控从事非法的多层次营销。该公司，学力星球（又称为“未来学习”），反过来指控调查者捏造罪名并超出其管辖范围，企图夺取创业公司的资产。

In another instance, the developers of a Chinese cryptocurrency exchange alleged that police in the eastern city of Wuxi went beyond their jurisdiction to open a criminal probe against the startup, also over alleged use of illegal multilevel marketing techniques.

在另一个案例中，一个中国加密货币交易所的开发者声称，位于东部的无锡市的警察超出了他们的管辖范围，对这家创业公司开展了刑事调查，同样指控涉嫌使用非法的多层次营销技巧。

Beijing has denounced the practice of aggressively seizing assets and assessing fines to raise revenue, describing such methods as “profit-seeking law enforcement.” The long-running phenomenon has flared up again as China’s economy suffers through a sluggish recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and a bursting of the country’s property bubble, prompting China’s top market regulator to announce this month a new clampdown on the misuse of regulatory powers to fill coffers.

北京对于为了筹集收入而积极地查封资产和征收罚款的做法表示谴责，称这种方法为“寻利执法”。这一长期存在的现象在中国经济从Covid-19大流行中缓慢复苏以及国内房地产泡沫破裂时再次爆发，促使中国的顶级市场监管机构本月宣布新的打压行动，以制止滥用监管权力来充实国库的行为。

The expense of implementing Beijing’s zero-tolerance Covid measures exacerbated many local governments’ debt woes, while a sharp drop in land sales deprived them of a key revenue source. Chinese local governments’ total land-related income in 2022 fell 23% from a year earlier, data from the Finance Ministry shows, mostly because of falling land sales.

实施北京的Covid清零政策措施的费用加剧了许多地方政府的债务问题，而土地销售的急剧下降则剥夺了它们的一个主要收入来源。财政部的数据显示，2022年中国地方政府的土地相关收入比前一年下降了23%，主要是因为土地销售下降。

Desperate, local governments have grappled for ways to juice revenues. Some resorted to fictitious transactions, setting up off-balance-sheet funding vehicles to buy state-owned land and assets from themselves. Many have also ramped up enforcement actions that generate income through fines, fees and asset seizures.

在绝望之中，地方政府纷纷寻找增加收入的方法。有些地方转向虚假交易，设立表外融资工具从自己手中购买国有土地和资产。许多地方也加大了通过罚款、费用和资产查封产生收入的执法行动。

In May, for instance, a public furor erupted after a Chinese state-media outlet reported that authorities in the central province of Henan were slapping unusually heavy and repeated fines on truck drivers for exceeding weight limits, with one driver claiming to have received 58 fines worth roughly $38,000 in just two years.

例如，五月份，当一家中国国有媒体报道称，河南省的中部地区当局对超重的卡车司机处以异常沉重且频繁的罚款时，公众爆发了强烈的愤怒。其中一名司机声称在短短两年内收到了大约38,000美元的58次罚款。

“After three years of the pandemic, finances are out of money,” one transport-enforcement official was filmed saying in the report. “This is called bringing law enforcement up to standard — the fines that should be imposed must be imposed.”

“在大流行病持续三年后，财政已经没有钱了，”一名交通执法官员在报道中被拍到这样说。“这就叫做按照法律标准执行执法 — 应该罚的罚款必须罚。”

Local authorities later denied setting any quotas for fines to be issued by law-enforcement officials.

地方当局后来否认为执法官员设定了任何罚款的指标。

In 2021, China’s then-public-security minister, Zhao Kezhi, right, encouraged his ministry to better enforce rules against ‘profit-seeking law enforcement.’ PHOTO: LIU BIN/ZUMA PRESS 2021年，当时的中国公安部长赵克志先生鼓励其部门更好地执行反对‘寻利执法’的规定。照片来源：刘斌/ZUMA PRESS

China’s Finance Ministry allows assets seized by public-security agencies during law-enforcement work — with the exception of smuggling cases — to be transferred to state coffers at the same level of government. The central government sets restrictions on how local public-security agencies can handle cases across jurisdictions, but officials and lawyers say police are sometimes willing to flout these rules to pursue cases that offer large enough financial or political payoffs.

中国的财政部允许公安机关在执法工作中查封的资产 — — 除走私案外 — — 转入同级政府的国库。中央政府对地方公安机关如何跨司法管辖区处理案件设有限制，但官员和律师表示，警方有时愿意违反这些规定，追查那些可以带来足够大的经济或政治回报的案件。

Beijing has tried to curb the phenomenon. In 2021, it reprimanded the northern city of Bazhou for ordering officials to plug fiscal gaps with fines, fees and other nontax income — a campaign that had raised more than $9 million worth of fines and confiscated assets in two months.

北京已经尝试遏制这种现象。2021年，它批评了北方的霸州市，该市命令官员用罚款、费用和其他非税收入来填补财政缺口 — — 这一行动在两个月内已经筹集了超过900万美元的罚款和被没收的资产。

That same year China’s then-public-security minister, Zhao Kezhi told his ministry to “resolutely rectify prominent problems such as profit-seeking law enforcement and illegal cross-jurisdiction law enforcement,” encouraging officials to better enforce rules against those practices.

同年，当时的中国公安部长赵克志告诉他的部门“坚决纠正寻利执法和非法跨司法管辖区执法等突出问题”，鼓励官员更好地执行反对这些做法的规定。

Representatives of Future Learning, the video-streaming startup, say the investigation into the company shows the efforts to stop police from seeking to raise revenue have fallen short in the face of the financial desperation of local governments.

视频流媒体创业公司“未来学习”的代表表示，对公司的调查显示，阻止警察寻求增加收入的努力在地方政府的财政绝望面前已经显得不足。

Founded in 2021, the Beijing-based company produced short videos summarizing the content of popular books. Users were able to watch either free with advertising, or pay about $27 in annual fees to avoid ads. The startup offered incentive payouts to representatives who help recruit more users, based on percentages of subscription fees paid by new customers.

成立于2021年的这家位于北京的公司制作了对热门书籍内容的简短视频概述。用户可以选择免费观看并带有广告，或支付约27美元的年费来避免广告。这家创业公司为帮助招募更多用户的代表提供了激励支付，这是基于新客户支付的订阅费的百分比。

Last year, market regulators in Beijing’s Chaoyang district looked into residents’ complaints that the company was engaged in multilevel marketing, some forms of which are illegal in China, but declined to open a case, saying it didn’t find evidence of wrongdoing, according to Future Learning representatives and a local media report.

去年，北京朝阳区的市场监管机构调查了居民关于该公司参与多层次营销的投诉，其中的某些形式在中国是非法的，但他们决定不立案，称没有发现任何违规证据，这是根据“未来学习”的代表和一家本地媒体的报道。

Authorities in Xilingol League, a sprawling grassland traversed by nomadic herders in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, took a different view. Officers from Xilingol police’s Aershan branch traveled to Beijing in early February to raid the company, according to an account published by the branch on social media.

中国内蒙古地区北部的锡林郭勒盟的当局持有不同的看法。根据该部门在社交媒体上发布的一则消息，锡林郭勒警察的阿尔山分支的官员在二月初前往北京突袭该公司。

Police detained founder Ren Bo and three other executives and brought them back to Xilingol’s capital, Xilinhot, according to Ren’s wife, Fu Mian. Authorities also took down Future Learning’s app and froze more than six million yuan, equivalent to roughly $830,000, of its assets, according to the police and the company’s representatives.

据任博的妻子付冕表示，警方拘留了创始人任博和其他三名高管，并把他们带回了锡林郭勒的首府，锡林浩特。根据警方和公司代表的说法，当局还关闭了“未来学习”的应用，并冻结了超过六百万人民币的资产，相当于大约830,000美元。

A police officer on duty in Xilingol League, China. Xilingol has been hit particularly hard by the country’s economic struggles. PHOTO: PENG YUAN/ZUMA PRESS 在中国锡林郭勒盟值班的一名警察。锡林郭勒盟受到国家经济困境的特别严重打击。照片来源：彭源/ZUMA PRESS。

“You’d better cooperate honestly and hand over the money, plead guilty and accept punishment,” a police officer told Ren, according to a handwritten letter the entrepreneur wrote in June, which his wife posted online.

“你最好诚实合作，交出钱来，承认罪行并接受惩罚”，根据任博在6月写的一封手写信，这封信是他的妻子在网上发布的，信中有一名警察这样告诉任博。

The Aershan branch police tried to justify their involvement by claiming there were victims from their jurisdiction, according to Fu and defense lawyers, who have challenged the police’s claim. Fu said the case remained under probe, with local prosecutors asking police to conduct supplementary investigations.

根据付冕和辩护律师的说法，阿尔山分支警察试图通过声称他们辖区有受害者来为他们的介入辩护，但这一说法遭到了质疑。付说，该案仍在调查中，当地检察官要求警方进行补充调查。

Like many local governments in less-developed stretches of China, Xilingol has been hit particularly hard by the country’s economic struggles. Revenue for Xilingol’s local funds budget — which includes land-sales income — over the first seven months of this year fell by more than 85% from the same period in 2022, according to government data.

像中国许多较不发达地区的地方政府一样，锡林郭勒盟受到国家经济困境的特别严重打击。根据政府数据，今年前七个月，锡林郭勒的地方资金预算收入（其中包括土地销售收入）比2022年同期下降了超过85%。

According to a June study published by the Chinese magazine Caijing, Xilingol took in fines and confiscated assets worth the equivalent of more than 10% of its tax income between 2018 and 2021, placing the league 24th out of 247 Chinese prefecture-level cities and districts ranked by their reliance on such funding sources.

根据中国财经杂志在6月份发表的一项研究，从2018年到2021年，锡林郭勒从罚款和没收资产中获得的收入相当于其税收收入的10%以上，使该盟在依赖此类资金来源的247个中国地级市和区中排名第24位。

In its social-media post on the Future Learning case, the Aershan branch said it had “applied an iron fist of thunder and lightning to launch an offensive against all forms of illegality and crimes.”

“在关于‘未来学习’案件的社交媒体帖子中，阿尔山分支表示，它已‘使用雷霆之铁拳对各种非法行为和犯罪进行了攻击。”

Xilingol authorities didn’t respond to requests for comment.

锡林郭勒当局没有回应置评请求。

Future Learning isn’t alone among startups targeted by out-of-town police. Hubdex, a cryptocurrency exchange, had a similar experience in 2021, when police from Wuxi, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, sent officers to several cities across China — including Beijing and Guangzhou — to detain Hubdex’s founder and other employees.

‘未来学习’并不是唯一一个受到外地警方打击的初创公司。Hubdex，一个加密货币交易所，在2021年也有过类似的经历，当时来自中国东部江苏省无锡市的警察向中国的几个城市派出警察 — 包括北京和广州 — 以拘留Hubdex的创始人和其他员工。

Prosecutors indicted the founder and five others for allegedly acquiring assets through fraudulent means, according to a charge sheet seen by The Wall Street Journal. The founder denied wrongdoing and accused Wuxi police of willfully seizing and mishandling suspects’ assets, including bitcoins that went missing. The case went to trial in July and a verdict hasn’t been issued, according to the founder’s wife.

根据《华尔街日报》看到的一份指控书，检察官指控创始人及其他五人涉嫌通过欺诈手段获取资产。创始人否认有错，并指控无锡警方故意扣押和不当处理嫌疑人的资产，其中包括失踪的比特币。根据创始人的妻子的说法，该案于7月开庭审理，尚未宣判。

The six defendants couldn’t be reached. Wuxi police, as well as the local district prosecutor’s office and court handling the Hubdex case, didn’t immediately respond to queries.

六名被告无法联系到。处理Hubdex案件的无锡警方、当地地区检察官办公室和法院均未立即回应记者问询。

Some Chinese lawyers and lawmakers have called for more sweeping reforms to address the problem. This spring, one legislator proposed that all fines and seized assets be transferred to central-government coffers, so as to reduce incentives for local officials to boost revenues through aggressive policing. It couldn’t be determined whether the legislature is acting on that proposal.

一些中国律师和立法者呼吁进行更全面的改革以解决这一问题。今年春天，有一位立法者提议将所有罚款和没收的资产转入中央政府的国库，以减少地方官员通过积极的执法增加收入的动机。目前尚不清楚立法机构是否正在采取行动对此提议进行审议。

Future Learning’s Ren remains in detention in Inner Mongolia. In his account of his first days in custody, Ren said he came close to cracking under the pressure of police threats. “But I thought carefully and reached a terrifying conclusion, that the police handling the case may have come prepared to seek profit.”

‘未来学习’的任仍然在内蒙古被拘留。在描述他被拘留的初日时，任表示，他几乎在警方威胁的压力下崩溃。‘但我仔细思考后得出一个恐怖的结论，处理此案的警察可能是来准备谋取利益的。’

Fu, Ren’s wife, said she and a team of lawyers lodged formal complaints with the Aershan branch’s superior agencies, including the Xilingol prosecutorial office and party disciplinary commission, which haven’t yet responded to their claims.

任的妻子付表示，她和一支律师团队已向阿尔山分支的上级机构提出正式投诉，包括锡林郭勒检察院和党的纪律委员会，但他们尚未对他们的要求作出回应。

Rebecca Feng contributed to this article.

Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com