Fraud involving collaboration between officials and companies is increasing now China has joined the WTO, a top legal official was quoted as saying yesterday.
It is also becoming "increasingly common" for employees of foreign firms and state-owned companies to collude in order to defraud official assets, Vice Procurator General Zhang Qiong warned, according to the China Daily newspaper.
Economic crimes such as corruption in China are taking on "new features," requiring fresh legal measures, Zhang said.
New regulations would have to focus on such post-WTO crimes, he told a press conference, the newspaper reported.
"We expect economic crimes with new features to increase after China's WTO entry," Zhang said. "Officials and companies are collaborating to commit crime more and more often."
"It will become increasingly common for employees of foreign enterprises and state-owned companies to join together to obtain state-owned assets by fraud," he was quoted as saying.
New judicial rules, or "interpretations," concerning existing laws, are being drafted to take into account China's entry to the WTO, sealed late last year, he said.
Zhang's comments echo warnings by observers that WTO entry is set to provide a fresh series of opportunities for official and commercial fraud, already endemic across China.
Eliminating rampant corruption has been repeatedly identified by China's leaders as one of the primary tasks for the country in the immediate future.
Just last week, US President George W. Bush urged China to live up to its pledges as a new member of the WTO and promote free trade.
US officials say China is throwing up barriers to US farm products with proposed rules on bio-engineered foods and is also lagging in enforcing some WTO pledges, including protection of intellectual property rights.
"China, as a full member of the WTO, will now be a full partner in the global trading system and will have the right and responsibility to fashion and enforce the rules of open trade," Bush told a news conference after talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
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