Here’s a brave man.. a Shanghai based lawyer wants the PRC Ministry of Finance to open their books for 2007/2008 financial year…
The Am Lawyer Daily has the story (gleaned from the International Herald Tribune)
Chinese Lawyer to Government: Time To Open The Books
By Brian Baxter
While it might be a bit much to compare Yan Yiming to the unknown protestor who stared down a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square in June 1989, the 44-year-old commercial litigator from Shanghai certainly isn’t lacking in the courage department.
Yan forged a reputation for being unafraid to take on the corrupt practices of Chinese companies and business executives on behalf of the country’s nascent class of private investors. Now Yan is taking on an even bigger adversary: the Chinese government.
The International Herald Tribune reported on Wednesday that Yan has presented a four-page petition to China’s Ministry of Finance requesting that it publish details of its 2008 expenditures and 2009 budget, something the ruling Communist Party hasn’t been particularly keen on in the past.
Each year, the IHT reports, Communist bureaucrats disclose only the barest outline of the government’s spending plans to the nation’s rubber-stamp parliament. Quoting liberally from public statements made by Chinese officials–including President Hu Jintao–Yan states that with China’s economic future resting on the performance of state-run industries, transparency and government accountability should be of paramount importance.
Read the full story at
http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2009/01/chinese-lawyer-to-government-time-to-open-up-those-books.html
