反腐，矫枉必须过正？｜Does It Have to Overcorrect the Problem?

2022年3月16日，我陪一个相识多年的企业家W总，去J省jiwei配合调查。当时还是疫情期间，省城出现了几个新增感染数字，专案组约我们去了煤城D市的一家宾馆，他们租下了这个宾馆的两个整层，整个专案组分成外调组、办案组、资产处理组等几个小组，共从全省各地jiwei、公安和检察系统抽调了两百多人，要把全省第一大煤企T煤集团的问题查个底朝天。

On March 16, 2022, I accompanied a long-time acquaintance, Mr. W, a businessman, to cooperate with an investigation conducted by the provincial discipline inspection committee in J province. At that time, it was still during the pandemic, and several new infections were reported in the provincial capital. The investigation team arranged for us to meet in a hotel in Coal City, D. They had rented two entire floors of the hotel. The entire team was divided into several groups: external investigation, case handling, and asset processing, with more than 200 people transferred from various commitees, public security, and procuratorial systems across the province. They were determined to thoroughly investigate the issues of T Coal Group, the largest coal enterprise in the province.

接待我们的办案组负责人，从J中检察院抽调来的李主任一见到我们就说：W总，你还带了律师来？很好！我们先谈，你有什么不理解不接受的，欢迎你的律师和我们谈。他们把W总带进办案区不到一小时，李主任出来了，很坦率地和我商量：你们W总是不是在国外待久了？怎么这么不能理解我们的良苦用心！T煤刚退下去的董事长老张，我们从他家一套长期不住人的房子里搜出美金、人民币超过一个亿，这些钱，客观地讲，我们查不清来源。但是，总不可能是D市老百姓给他的吧？不着落在你们这些长期做T煤集团外围业务的民营老板头上，可能吗？你们W总，我们早已经调查清楚了，你们的企业做T煤的业务是最多的，但是，W总本人的问题不是最严重的。因此，专案组确定，只让他认三十万美金就拉倒，我们做到两保证：一不动他本人，二不影响他的事业和T煤的合作。这么优厚的条件，W总还是不肯接受，还在解释他为什么和T煤的老张关系特殊，让我们相信为什么这么多年老张没收过他的钱。

The head of the case-handling team, Director Li, who had been transferred from the J provincial procuratorate, greeted us as soon as we arrived and said: "Mr. W, you even brought a lawyer? Excellent! We will talk first, and if there’s anything you don’t understand or accept, feel free to have your lawyer discuss it with us." They took Mr. W into the investigation area, and less than an hour later, Director Li came out and straightforwardly discussed with me: "Has your Mr. W been abroad for too long? Why is it so difficult for him to understand our good intentions! We just found over 100 million yuan in US dollars and RMB at the house of Mr. Zhang, the recently retired chairman of T Coal. Frankly, we can't trace the source of this money. But could it have come from the ordinary citizens of D city? Isn’t it more likely that this money came from private business owners like your Mr. W, who have been doing business with T Coal for years? We’ve already thoroughly investigated your Mr. W. His company has handled the most business with T Coal, but his personal involvement is not the most severe. Therefore, the investigation team decided that as long as he admits to giving $300,000, that’s it. We guarantee two things: one, we won’t touch him personally, and two, his business and cooperation with T Coal won’t be affected. Even with these favorable terms, Mr. W still refuses to accept and is explaining why his relationship with Mr. Zhang is special and why Mr. Zhang hasn’t taken any money from him all these years."

张律师，我们希望你去给W总讲清楚，以我们省jiwei办T煤窝案的决心和力度，就凭W总从90年代开始就在T煤做业务，今天他连三十万美金都不认，我们能放他回北京吗？北京有一个女老板，她的问题最严重，她的企业不像你们一样有技术有人员，她整个就是一皮包公司，而且，全部的十几亿业务，都是老张做一把手时开展的，她和老张本人之那点事我们就不给你讲了。总之，她一开始还不肯交代，我们关了她两个月，最后彻底给整服了，我们安排她一个人认了五千六百万，这就解决了整个案件的一半数额。你们W总，我们只给定了三十万美金，不认，今天就留在这里，直到态度好了，痛痛快快地认了为止，你进去劝劝他吧。

"Lawyer Zhang, we hope you can make Mr. W understand. With the determination and strength of our committee in handling the T Coal corruption case, considering that Mr. W has been doing business with T Coal since the 1990s, how can we let him go back to Beijing if he doesn’t even admit to $300,000? There is a female boss in Beijing, whose case is much worse. Unlike you, her company has no technical expertise or personnel; it’s just a shell company. All of her business, worth more than a billion yuan, was conducted while Mr. Zhang was in charge. As for her personal relationship with Mr. Zhang, I won’t get into the details. In short, she initially refused to confess, so we detained her for two months. Eventually, she confessed, admitting to 56 million yuan. That alone resolved half of the entire case. As for your Mr. W, we’ve only asked him to admit to $300,000. If he refuses, he will stay here until he changes his attitude and confesses. Go in and try to persuade him."

我随即被安排进了办案点内部，和W总单独交流。我对他说：今天的形势，你认也得认，不认也得认了。不认，他们最长可以留置你六个月，以你的身体，吃得消？但是，怎么认，我们还是要埋下伏笔。老张当一把手的九年，你因为坐移民监，加上疫情，有五年没有在国内。你就承认这九年，每年春节、中秋前都给老张送一两万美金，总数凑够三十万就得了。将来，万一他们说话不算数，要追究你的责任，我们拿出你的出入境记录，就足以让他们不敢下手。

I was then taken into the investigation area to speak with Mr. W alone. I told him, "Given the current situation, you have no choice but to admit it. If you don’t, they can detain you for up to six months. Can your health handle that? However, we need to be strategic about how you confess. During the nine years that Mr. Zhang was in charge, you were outside the country for five years due to immigration formalities and the pandemic. You should admit that during these nine years, you gave Mr. Zhang $10,000 to $20,000 before the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival each year, totaling $300,000. In case they don’t keep their word and pursue charges against you in the future, we can present your entry and exit records to show that you were not in the country, and they wouldn’t dare take action."

就这样，当天，表面上看，我们和专案组合作得非常愉快，傍晚做完笔录，临走时，还握手言欢。

Thus, on the surface, we cooperated smoothly with the investigation team. We completed the record by the evening and left after a friendly handshake.

一个多月之后，五月底，W总突然接到李主任的电话：你还得来D市一趟，笔录有些部分还要改。W总放下电话就开始心里不自在，我一再安慰他：改笔录很正常，补充部分细节也正常，不会有大的问题。等W总去了，李主任告诉他：2019年中秋节，我们上一次给你记得是在老张办公室，给了他两万美金。后来我们意识到，那年六月他就退了，没办公室了，你把这一笔加到上一年吧！W总回到北京，见到我的第一面就是苦笑：这还是XX党的J检机关吗？就这么办案子，怎么看怎么就是一场闹剧！

A little over a month later, at the end of May, Mr. W suddenly received a call from Director Li: "You need to come to D city again; some parts of the record need to be revised." Mr. W became uneasy after hanging up the phone, but I reassured him that modifying records and adding details was normal and not a big deal. However, when Mr. W arrived, Director Li told him, "In the last record, we noted that you gave Mr. Zhang $20,000 at his office during the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2019. However, we realized later that he retired in June of that year and no longer had an office. So, let’s move that sum to the previous year." When Mr. W returned to Beijing, he met me with a bitter smile and said, "Is this really the disciplinary committee of the Communist Party? This investigation feels like a farce!"

但是，这场闹剧才刚开始。到了八月份，我们就听说，专案组的资产处理组，开始陆续找做过T煤业务也已经承认了给T煤领导送过钱的民企老板，逼他们退赃，专案组的理由是：T煤这些被抓领导的老婆纷纷到我们这里闹，说他们好好的男人，都是被你们这些贪心的民营老板带坏了，没有你们行贿，哪有他们受贿！省jiwei常委会研究决定，必须给你们这些老板一个教训，因为行贿，从T煤多拿的钱，这可是XX党的钱，你们不退行吗？至于退的额度，区分具体情况，从合同额的5%到20%不等，大小五百家民企，谁也跑不掉，都要退。

But that was only the beginning of the farce. By August, we heard that the asset disposal team from the investigation group had started contacting private business owners who had admitted to giving money to T Coal's leadership. They were now being forced to return the "illegally gained" money. The reason given by the investigation team was that the wives of the arrested T Coal leaders had been causing disturbances, claiming their husbands had been corrupted by these greedy private business owners. They argued, "If you hadn't bribed them, how could they have accepted bribes?" The provincial discipline committee’s standing committee decided that these private business owners needed to be taught a lesson. After all, the money they made from T Coal through bribery belonged to the Communist Party. How could they not return it? As for the amount to be returned, it varied depending on the specific circumstances, ranging from 5% to 20% of the contract value. None of the five hundred businesses, large or small, were spared—they all had to return the money.

合同额的5%到20%！做过煤炭业务的都知道，前些年，煤炭行业不景气，国有煤矿长期欠民企的工程款不解决，民营承包商、分包商承担了极大的财务成本，很多业务就算能全部回款，也没了利润，现在，到哪里去找这么多钱退赃？但是，资产处置组的几个人非常体贴：知道你们没钱，也不让你们出现钱，只要同意从T煤欠你们的合同款里扣就行。不配合，过去答应不动你们的人，就要重新考虑。

5% to 20% of the contract value! Anyone familiar with the coal business knows that, in recent years, the industry has been in decline, and state-owned coal mines have long failed to settle outstanding project payments owed to private contractors. Private contractors and subcontractors had already been bearing huge financial burdens, and even if they managed to collect the full payments, there was no profit left. So, where could they possibly find enough money to return? However, the asset disposal team members were very "considerate": they knew the businesses didn’t have cash on hand, so they offered to deduct the bribe repayments from the outstanding amounts T Coal owed them. If they didn’t cooperate, the previous promises of not touching them personally would be reconsidered.

就这样，W总的企业作为总包商，我们一个分包商共做了T煤八个亿的业务，就被资产处置组逼着退了一个亿。我们在认识到被逼割地赔款已经不可避免后，就和W总共同决定，2022年11月初，他趁着专案组还没轮到我们企业，一个人飞回了自己已经入籍的澳洲。

In this way, Mr. W's company, acting as the main contractor, and our subcontracting business, which had handled 800 million yuan worth of T Coal projects, were forced by the asset disposal team to return 100 million yuan. Realizing that there was no way to avoid this forced compensation, Mr. W and I made the decision that in early November 2022, before the investigation team could focus on our company, he would fly back alone to Australia, where he had already obtained citizenship.

以后的几个月，资产处理组的几个人没少对企业高管各种威胁：W总不回来，就让你们人财两空！部分企业高管也去找过办案组的李主任：不是说好的认了三十万美金，一不影响W总个人，二不影响企业吗？怎么明明不存在的事，我们配合了，现在又把以前讲好的条件推翻，在T煤长期欠我们十六亿不解决的情况下，反而要我们退赃，而且至少要退两个亿？李主任自知理亏，一再说这超出了我们的能力，我们是给W总，给你们企业说了不少好话的，但是，我们做不了主。同时，李主任也透露了这个案件这么硬搞的秘密：专家组组长，从某市副检察长任上调到省jiwei办专案的ZH主任，要谋求马上可能空缺的某市jiwei一把手的位置，他是铆足了劲要在T煤案中干出大的成绩来，不整点以前别人没整过的，怎么能体现他的成绩？

Over the following months, members of the asset disposal team frequently threatened the company's senior management: "If Mr. W doesn’t return, you’ll lose both your people and your money!" Some company executives approached Director Li from the investigation team: "Didn’t you promise that if Mr. W admitted to the $300,000, it wouldn’t affect him personally or the company? Why are we being forced to return money for things that never happened, while T Coal still owes us 1.6 billion yuan? Now you’re demanding we return at least 200 million yuan in bribes?" Director Li, clearly feeling guilty, repeatedly stated that the situation was beyond his control: "We’ve spoken up for Mr. W and your company, but we’re not the ones making the final decisions." He also revealed the secret behind the investigation’s harsh tactics: Director ZH, the head of the investigation team, had been transferred from the position of deputy procurator in a certain city to handle the T Coal case at the provincial discipline committee. He was eyeing the soon-to-be-vacant role of head of the city’s discipline committee, and he was determined to make a major impact with the T Coal case. How could he prove his achievements without doing something bigger than anyone before him?

至此，我们是彻底明白了，不惜公然践踏市场规则，把本来就因国企长期欠债挣扎在死亡线上的五百家民企搞得痛不欲生，完全是专案组负责人为了个人提升，要用别人的血染自己的红顶了。而且，随着T煤老张的案件移送到J中中院审理，外人才了解到，所谓的亿元贪腐大案，整个就是捏造出来的，实际上，能查实的只有两百多万，其余数额，都是专案组像当初忽悠W总一样，忽悠出来的。所以，好大喜功的专案组长ZH某，对T煤集团的其他几个副总，都是在移送司法的同时大加宣传，但是，恰恰对一把手老张的所谓亿元大案，都移送司法两年了，至今不敢对外公开案情和涉案金额。

At this point, we fully understood that they were willing to trample on market rules without hesitation, driving the 500 private enterprises—already struggling due to long-term debts owed by state-owned enterprises—into despair. All of this was done by the head of the investigation team to further his personal promotion, using others' hardships to decorate his own political career. Moreover, as Mr. Zhang's (the former head of T Coal) case was transferred to the J City Intermediate People's Court for trial, it became clear to outsiders that the so-called billion-yuan corruption case was entirely fabricated. In reality, only a little over 2 million yuan could be substantiated; the rest of the figures were conjured up by the investigation team, just like they had manipulated Mr. W earlier. While Director ZH eagerly promoted the prosecution of several other vice presidents of T Coal, the so-called billion-yuan corruption case against Mr. Zhang, the key figure, had been in the judicial system for two years, and yet, they dared not publicly disclose the details or the involved amounts.

掌握到这些情况后，我的意见就是公开和专案组长ZH某摊牌，不能再做无原则的委曲求全，但是，W总从生意人的角度，还是希望能消财免灾，他在澳洲指示我们：钱上，该让步就让步，但是，必须确定好让步的数额，连同T煤集团长期欠我们的工程款一并解决，需要我签字的，我可以授权，也可以让办案的人来找我签字，事情没有解决前，我不回去。但是，专案组的人坚持说和共chandang没有讨价还价的余地，人不回来，没得谈。就这么扯皮扯到2023年4月底，专案组长约企业高管和律师和他本人当面谈谈。

After realizing all of this, my advice was to confront Director ZH of the investigation team openly and make it clear that we could no longer make unprincipled compromises. However, from a businessman’s perspective, Mr. W still hoped to resolve the issue by sacrificing money to avoid further trouble. From Australia, he instructed us: "I am willing to make financial concessions, but the exact amount must be negotiated and agreed upon, and T Coal must settle the long-overdue payments for our projects. I am ready to authorize someone to sign any necessary paperwork on my behalf or allow the investigators to come to me for my signature, but I will not return until the matter is resolved." However, the investigation team insisted there was no room for negotiation with the Communist Party. "If Mr. W doesn’t return, there will be no discussions," they said. This back-and-forth dragged on until late April 2023, when Director ZH arranged a meeting with the company executives and legal representatives to talk face-to-face.

2023年5月9日下午4点，我和企业一个副总一起，在J省省委大楼四楼的一个房间内，见到了T煤专案组长ZH某，他一见我就说：你们老W怎么这么不明白事，早就说了不动他的人，不就是出点钱吗？为什么不相信，为什么不回来？如果说以前，答应你们的都是下边这些人，W总担心他们说了不算，现在，我亲自出来了，我说的话，他没理由不信了吧？我现在也是副厅级干部了。

On May 9, 2023, at 4:00 PM, I, along with one of the company's vice presidents, met Director ZH of the T Coal investigation team in a room on the fourth floor of the provincial government building in J Province. As soon as he saw me, he said: "Why doesn't your Mr. W understand things? We’ve already said we won’t touch him personally. It’s just about paying some money. Why doesn’t he believe us? Why won’t he return? If, in the past, it was lower-ranking officials who made promises, and Mr. W was worried they wouldn’t hold, well, I’m personally stepping in now. I’m a deputy department-level cadre now—he has no reason not to believe me."

我打量着这个长我一岁，检察系统出身的副厅级干部，开门见山：W总不信任专案组，也是有充分理由的，去年三月我陪他做笔录时，你们就是答应过了，W总只是配合办案，你们的目标是T煤的老张，把老张的案子办成就行，不影响民企。本来，三十万美金就是不存在的，中间有几年W总都不在国内，怎么能每年去老张的办公室送钱？你们办案子，根本不在乎事实，不讲证据，现在，忽悠我们承认不存在的行贿在前，逼迫我们在合同之外大幅度让利在后。我如果是W总，也不会相信你们。

I looked at this deputy department-level official, who was only a year older than me and had come up through the procuratorate system, and decided to get straight to the point: "Mr. W has every reason not to trust your investigation team. Last March, when I accompanied him to give a statement, you promised that Mr. W was merely cooperating with the investigation, and that your target was T Coal’s former chairman, Mr. Zhang. You said the goal was to resolve Mr. Zhang’s case without affecting private businesses. The $300,000 you mentioned doesn’t even exist—there were several years during which Mr. W wasn’t even in the country, so how could he have gone to Mr. Zhang’s office each year to deliver money? Your investigation doesn’t care about the facts or evidence. First, you tricked us into admitting to bribery that never happened, and now you’re forcing us to make massive concessions beyond the terms of the contract. If I were Mr. W, I wouldn’t trust you either."

ZH某脸一沉：不要以为加入个外国籍就安全了，我们从国外抓回来的多了，上个月，我们的人就从美国带回来一个！这么强大的执政党，这么伟大的领导人，我们在全世界范围内，哪个角落，不能把你带回来！你告诉老W，他再不回来，下个周，就封你们企业的账户。不要指望法院帮你们执行，他们那些官司是怎么打赢的，你们心里没数吗？法院这些人，我们随时抓！

Director ZH’s expression darkened: "Don’t think that just because he’s obtained foreign citizenship, he’s safe. We’ve brought many people back from abroad. Just last month, our people brought someone back from the United States! With such a powerful ruling party and such great leadership, is there any corner of the world where we can’t get him? Tell Mr. W that if he doesn’t return by next week, we’ll freeze your company’s accounts. And don’t expect the courts to help you execute any of your claims. Do you even know how you’ve been winning those cases? The courts? We can detain any of those people whenever we want!"

话说到这个份上，我也没有退路了：ZH主任，你可以封企业的账户，可以继续让T煤不给我们企业回款，可以继续干预法院的执行。但是，我告诉你，W总还真不是一般的土老板，他在澳洲，和他们的前总理陆克文非常熟悉，我们的企业也是中澳合资企业。陆克文就一再劝W总不能在法律之外让步，并愿意帮他找zhongguo政府交涉。你敢封企业账户，我们马上在悉尼和陆克文一起召开记者招待会，向世界完整讲述被你们诱供的过程，和现在被你们敲诈的过程，我会让你扬名全球，也许，更大的领导因此知道有你这么一个人，为了党国的反腐事业如此卖力，会把你提拔到更高的位置上。

With the conversation at this point, I had no other choice but to respond: “Director ZH, you can freeze the company’s accounts, continue to prevent T Coal from paying us, and interfere with the court's decisions as much as you like. But let me tell you, Mr. W isn’t just some average small-town boss. He’s very well-connected in Australia, and he’s close with their former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. Our company is a joint venture between China and Australia. Rudd has repeatedly advised Mr. W not to give in to extralegal pressure, and he is willing to help negotiate with the Chinese government on his behalf. If you dare to freeze our accounts, we will hold a press conference in Sydney, together with Rudd, to present the world with a full account of the coercion and extortion your team has been carrying out. I will make sure you become famous worldwide. Maybe even bigger leaders will find out about you and see how hard you’ve been working for the anti-corruption cause. Perhaps it will get you promoted to an even higher position.”

这场对决之后，我们最担心的事没有发生，而且，T煤当年还给我们回款了六七个亿，国企的人也实在看不惯了，在他们看来，专案组这些人就是瞎指挥，一群对企业管理一窍不通的人，打着办案需要的幌子，直接要求企业停止付款，可是，企业的正常开采等不起，经营中出了问题，你们负责吗？执行法院对专案组也非常反感：一个抽调来的小公安，来了就要见我们院长，什么手续没有，就让我们中止民事案件的执行。这年头真是只有我们想不到，没有做不到的。

After this confrontation, the worst outcome we had feared did not happen. T Coal even managed to pay us six or seven hundred million yuan that year. The people at the state-owned company were fed up as well. In their view, the investigation team had been giving orders without any real understanding of how to manage a business. Using the pretext of the investigation, they directly ordered the company to stop payments, but the company couldn’t afford to halt its normal operations. If there were operational issues, would the investigation team take responsibility? The court executors were also very frustrated with the investigation team. One junior officer, seconded from the police force, demanded to meet with the court president without any proper procedure, asking them to halt the execution of civil cases. These days, it seems there’s nothing the discipline committee can't do.

以上讲的J省T煤专案组的办案故事，是近年本人辩护职务犯罪案件，遇到的最恶劣，也是第一个大范围造假，以公权力帮国企化债的案例。此后，本人在全国各地，遇到的此类案件就举不胜举。南方某省某地市J委把一个民企老板放出来两个月后，打电话质问他为什么还不退赃？这个老板说实在没筹到钱（事实上，他所谓的承诺行贿几百万给政府领导，钱就存在他这里供领导随时取，根本就是办案人员以不配合就不放人，而且政府领导已经讲了，你不承认也照样判你逼出来的）。J委的人就说：我们还等着你交的钱发工资呢，你不交钱，只能把你重新收进来！

This story about the T Coal investigation team from the J provincial discipline committee is the most egregious case I have encountered in recent years while defending in criminal cases related to duty crimes. It was also the first large-scale fabrication case where public power was used to help state-owned enterprises reduce their debts. Since then, I’ve encountered many similar cases across the country. For example, in a southern province, a city’s discipline committee released a private business owner after two months of detention, then called him to demand why he hadn’t yet returned the illicit funds. The businessman explained that he genuinely hadn’t managed to gather the money (in fact, the so-called bribe of several million yuan was just a pretext, with the money held by the businessman and available for the government leader to take at any time; the investigators simply wouldn’t release him unless he cooperated, and the leader had already said, “Even if you don’t admit it, you’ll still be convicted”). The discipline committee officer responded, “We’re waiting for the money you’re supposed to return so we can pay salaries. If you don’t hand it over, we’ll bring you back in again.”

我不知道，全国还有多少地方财政，等着J委的罚没收入填补亏空。也不知道，全国有多少地方J委的办案经费，都是从民企老板手中这么化来的。

I don’t know how many local governments across the country are relying on discipline committee fines and confiscations to cover financial shortfalls. Nor do I know how many local discipline committees are funding their investigations by extracting money from private business owners.

我最近辩护的沿海某经济大省某市开发区领导的案子，市J委没从他家找出一分赃款，却抓了二十三个民企老板，逼着这些老板每人承认分别送给他三十万到五十万到一百万不等，但是，所有这些钱，一转手又放在这些老板们这里吃利息。就这样拼凑出一个受贿1260万元的大案。但是，办案人员使出浑身解数，也就帮当事人编造出1260万，他们从23个老板企业，扣了2000万，多出来的部分，他们连编造都懒得编了，就给我的当事人做了份笔录：历年收的烟酒，处理后卖了六百多万，这六百多万，都放在民企老板处收利息了。这些钱，加上利息，全部作为违纪款收缴。但是，这么多的烟酒，谁送的？通过什么渠道处理的？这些烟酒是不是真的存在，哪怕是按违纪罚没，仅凭一纸笔录就可以认定？这些问题，在目前权势熏天无人敢管的J委看来，根本就不是问题。

In a recent case I defended, which involved a district leader from an economically developed coastal province, the city's discipline committee found no illicit funds in his home. Yet, they detained 23 private business owners, forcing each to admit to giving the leader between 300,000 to 1 million yuan in bribes. However, all this money was immediately returned to these businessmen, where it accumulated interest. In this way, they fabricated a large bribery case amounting to 12.6 million yuan. The investigators went to great lengths to help the case reach that amount, deducting 20 million yuan from the 23 businesses, and they didn’t even bother making up excuses for the extra money. They gave my client a statement that said, "Over the years, we collected over 6 million yuan from selling cigarettes and alcohol, and this money was kept by the business owners to accrue interest." The total sum, including the interest, was confiscated as disciplinary funds. But who gave all this alcohol and cigarettes? Through what channels were they sold? Did these goods even exist? Even if we accept this as a disciplinary violation, can such a matter be resolved with just a single written statement? For the discipline committee, which is now all-powerful and unchecked, none of these questions seem to matter.

上个周在南方某市，一个贪污受贿案的当事人家属就问我：张律师，是不是现在我们国家太腐败了，反腐，必须用矫枉过正的方式？我们老赵这么冤，相信其他很多被抓的干部也冤，是不是在领导们看来，反腐必须牺牲一批人，才可能成功。出现一批冤案，是现在反腐过程中不能避免的？

Just last week, a family member of a defendant in a corruption case in a southern city asked me: "Lawyer Zhang, is our country so corrupt that anti-corruption efforts must go to extremes to correct things? Our old Zhao is so wronged, and I believe many other officials who have been arrested are also wronged. Do the leaders think that anti-corruption can only succeed by sacrificing a group of people? Are wrongful convictions now an unavoidable part of the anti-corruption process?"

这个家属的问题，我当时没有回答。我不知道，当前地方J委办案过程中普遍存在的无中生有，小题大做，逼供诱供，无限夸大，利益导向，敛财为主的办案模式，及其导致的地方干部不敢干实事，民营企业家纷纷躺平，地方企业大批关门，大量工人失业，地方财政破产的现实，更高的领导知道不知道？掌握权柄的人是不是有更高明的安排，已经在部署改变现在乱象的出路。

I didn’t answer the family member’s question at the time. I don’t know if the higher leadership is aware of the common practices in local discipline committee investigations, where they fabricate charges, exaggerate minor offenses, use coercion, force confessions, and prioritize financial gain. These practices result in local officials becoming afraid to take initiative, private business owners giving up, large numbers of businesses closing down, massive worker layoffs, and local government finances collapsing. Do those in power know about this? Are there more sophisticated plans in place to resolve these chaotic situations?

国家这些年走过的道路，我听很多熟悉的人解读，不少人也困惑不已：历史太复杂，我们每一个人的人生又太短暂，很多事，我们看不透，是福是祸，可能要过去很久之后才能明了。也许，我们现在不理解的，感到残酷的，正是历史进程不得不经历的。也许从个案上看，一些案件是不该这么处理，一些还算干事而且廉洁的干部，不该让他们背上现在的恶名而且付出自由的代价，对民企，一个又一个的案件中让他们退钱，似乎过于苛刻，但是，不如此不足以改变普遍存在的官商勾结的积习。很多人就相信历史决定论的：一个人在社会的阶梯上站得愈高，和他有关系的人愈多，他对于别人的权力愈大，他在每个行为的命定性和必然性就愈明显。

Many people I know have shared their interpretations of the country's path over the past few years. Quite a few are confused: history is too complex, and our individual lives are too short to fully comprehend it. Many things remain unclear—whether they are blessings or disasters—until much later. Perhaps the things we find incomprehensible or cruel today are inevitable parts of the historical process. Perhaps, in individual cases, some actions should not have been handled in such a manner; some officials, who have been diligent and honest, shouldn’t be saddled with today’s infamy and lose their freedom. Maybe forcing private businesses to return money in case after case is too harsh. But without such measures, the entrenched habits of collusion between government and business can’t be eradicated. Many believe in historical determinism: the higher one stands on the social ladder, the more people are connected to them, and the more power they wield over others. Thus, the inevitability of their every action becomes more pronounced.

但是，我本人决不接受：坏的手段可以实现好的目的。因为：手段代表了在形成之中的理想和进行之中的目的，人们无法通过邪恶的手段来达到美好的目的。手段是种子，目的是树。

But personally, I absolutely refuse to accept the idea that bad means can achieve good ends. Because the means represent the ideals being formed and the purpose being pursued. One cannot use evil methods to achieve a noble goal. The means are the seed, and the end is the tree.

我本人既然不能高明到透过现在的反腐乱象，看到因此带来的光明未来，就不能麻木地对自己亲眼目睹的现状保持缄默。因为，我坚信，目前的现状如果不能立即叫停，反腐不能回到法治轨道，整个官场就会加速躺平，民企会加速倒闭，整个社会就会出现赔上整个厂卫系统也化解不了的危机。

Since I’m not wise enough to see through the current chaos in anti-corruption efforts and envision the bright future that might come from it, I cannot remain indifferent and silent about the reality I have witnessed. I firmly believe that if this current situation is not stopped immediately, if anti-corruption efforts don’t return to the track of rule of law, the entire bureaucratic system will continue to stagnate, private enterprises will collapse even faster, and society will face a crisis that even the most powerful mechanisms of control won't be able to resolve.

因此，我只能以微薄之力，不停地呐喊，不论是否于事有补，至少，不能为自己短暂的一生，留下将来追悔莫及的遗憾。

Therefore, I can only continue to raise my voice with whatever little strength I have, regardless of whether it will have any effect. At the very least, I must ensure that I don't leave behind regrets in my short life that I will one day look back on with remorse.

张庆方

Zhang Qingfang

电话：13910405610

Phone: 13910405610

2024年9月9日

September 9, 2024