Who goes to the gallows?
谁该上绞架? —— 中国公众对吴英案的关注
Concern over a high-profile death penalty
中国公众对一宗高曝光度死刑案的热议
It is rare for China’s 500m internet users to defend the filthy rich. But a provincial court’s decision on January 18th to uphold a death sentence imposed on one of China’s wealthiest businesswomen(Wu Ying) has created an unusual outpouring of sympathy. It has also led to criticism of a legal system seen to treat private citizens far more harshly than errant officials.
在拥有五亿用户的中国互联网上，很少能见到网民们为“龌龊的”富人说话。但是，当中国一个省级法院于1月18日作出决定，维持对全国最富有的女人之一吴英的死刑判决时，却引发了异乎寻常的广泛的同情之声。这件事还引发了人们对中国法律体系的批评，这个体系看起来对待普通公民比对待那些不轨的官员要严厉得多。
The case of 31-year-old Wu Ying, who was convicted of “illegal fund-raising”, has also stirred debate about the fairness of the economic system. State-owned enterprises can borrow money from (state-owned) banks, whereas private businesses are often left to fend for themselves in an informal market of moneylending, such as the one in which Ms Wu thrived.
31岁的吴英被指控的罪名是“非法集资”。[注]她的案子还激起了人们关于经济制度公平性的辩论。国有企业可以从国有银行借钱，但民营企业常常需要在非正规的借贷市场上筹资。吴英就是在这种市场上发的财。
Ms Wu’s youth and humble origins, as well as an absence of real evidence that her activities caused harm to anyone, except possibly some rich investors, have also helped endear her to a general public informed by internet chatter. She began her career working in her aunt’s beauty salon in coastal Zhejiang province, and went on to run other beauty parlours before building up a conglomerate, the Bense Group, with a wide range of interests from property to lending. Amazingly, in 2006, aged just 25, she was named China’s sixth-richest woman by Hurun Report, a wealth researcher.
吴英的年龄和贫苦的家庭背景，以及缺乏损害他人的确切证据（除了一些富有的投资者外），都有助于她得到公众的同情，这些公众人士通常是从互联网的聊天中得知各种信息的。吴英在浙江省她姑母的美容院开始职业生涯，之后开过一些其它的美容院，逐渐建立起一个综合性的大企业 —“本色集团”，经营从地产到借贷各种广泛的业务。令人惊叹的是，当时年仅25岁的吴英，在2006年被胡润报告（一个富豪研究公司）列为中国最富的女人中第六位。
Ms Wu’s extraordinary rise is hard to imagine without her doing some dodgy deals. Possibly the wrong ones, for her fall was even more rapid than her rise. She was arrested, sentenced to death in 2009 for illegally raising $120m in funds from illicit sources (ie, not official banks). Chinese press reports said Ms Wu gave information that led to the arrests of officials and bankers. Some wonder whether the death sentence was aimed at stopping her from revealing more.
吴英能如此迅速的暴发，恐怕是得益于一些巧妙的交易。这些交易很可能是违规的，因为她的衰落比她的暴发更迅速。2009年，她被逮捕并以通过非法渠道（不是通过官方银行）集资1.2亿美元的罪名被判死刑。中国媒体报道说，吴英交代的信息导致了一些政府和银行官员被捕。有些人怀疑死刑判决是为了阻止她进一步暴露更多内幕。
Since 2007 China has required that all death sentences be reviewed by the supreme court, which now represents Ms Wu’s final chance of reprieve. Last year the number of capital crimes was reduced for the first time since 1979. The number of executions in China is a state secret, but the Dui Hua Foundation in California, which promotes improved legal rights in China, estimates that it fell from around 8,000 in 2007 to 4,000 last year.
自2007年以来，中国要求所有死刑判决必须经过最高法院的审核，这是吴英免死的最后机会。去年，中国的死刑案件自1979年以来第一次减少。被执行死刑的人数是国家的机密，但加州的Dui Hua基金会(旨在推进中国人法律权利的组织)估计，这个数字已从2007年的大约8,000人降到了去年的4,000人。
Reforming spirits in China groaned when Wang Shengjun, a man with no legal training, was appointed president of the supreme court in 2008. Mr Wang has been a strong advocate of President Hu Jintao’s idea of the “three supremes” in judicial affairs: the supremacy of the Communist Party’s interests, of the public’s interests and (in third place) of the law. Global Times, an English-language paper in Beijing, said public support for the death penalty for non-violent crimes was falling, and expressed hope that the supreme court would take heed of this. But it lamented that public opinion may affect what it coyly called “judicial independence” in the case of Ms Wu.
2008年，当没受过法律训练的王胜俊被任命为最高法院院长后，司法改革的声音就喑哑了。王胜俊是胡锦涛主席关于司法工作“三个至上”说法的坚定支持者。这“三个至上”是：党的事业至上、人民利益至上，以及排在第三位的宪法法律至上。北京的一家英文报纸《环球日报》说，公众对非暴力犯罪的死刑判决的支持率正在降低，希望最高法院注意到这一点；但又表示遗憾说，在吴英的案子上，公众意见可能会影响到“司法独立”(这个词是文章羞答答地说出来的)。
