How China’s economic slump is prompting police to target business owners

Posts circulating on social media reveal that police across China have been targeting private business owners, freezing their assets, and demanding money to release the funds, as reported by Voice of America (VOA).

Zhang Ke (a pseudonym), a man who has been hiding from police in Guangzhou since September, claims he has done nothing wrong but is evading authorities to avoid extortion.

His troubles began in July when all of his bank accounts were frozen by the Nanle County Public Security Bureau in Henan province.

The reason: Zhang ran a sports lottery distributor business, offering a remote gambling service to clients.

To lift the freeze, police demanded USD 55,000, nearly all of Zhang's earnings.

According to Zhang, his case is far from unique.

Nearly 10,000 cases of asset freezes have been reported in Guangzhou province alone.

Many business owners, like Zhang, have fallen victim to this extortion.

Zhang's business, which involved online gambling through social media platforms, operates in a grey area of Chinese law.

While the sale of physical lottery tickets is regulated, the sale of sports lottery tickets online is prohibited.

However, Zhang’s business does not distribute physical tickets, making the law’s interpretation subjective and open to exploitation.

Zhang believes this legal ambiguity allows police from different provinces to exploit business owners for personal gain.

“The lack of clarity and standards for interpretation provides these cross-provincial police officers an opportunity to incriminate tens of thousands of store owners,” Zhang explained.

This practice, known as offshore fishing on the internet, has become widespread.

Police from one province are seizing assets from businesses in other provinces, often transferring money directly into personal accounts rather than official accounts, VOA reports.

The police asked them for money and the money was then transferred to the policemen's personal accounts, not to the public security bureau’s corporate accounts, Zhang added.

Experts suggest that China’s economic downturn is driving this rise in unlawful enforcement.

Teng Biao, a professor at Hunter College, noted that local governments, once reliant on land sales for revenue, are now turning to offshore fishing as a way to fill their coffers.

“The local governments used to rely on selling land for financial resources.

But the economic downturn and crippled property market stripped them of that option,” he said, according to VOA.

Many business owners, including Zhang, have been forced to pay illegal fines to avoid arrest.

If you don’t give the police money, you’re going to be locked up, Zhang stated.

Zhang now believes his only option is to leave China altogether.

I don’t want to live in this land of China anymore; it’s disgusting, he said.

Inputs from Agencies.