In China, it has been known for rich people to allegedly hire body doubles to serve prison sentences for them.
Reports over the years have suggested that wealthy Chinese people have been known to recruite ‘substitute criminals’ to serve out prison sentences and stand-in for them at court.
A Chinese police officer even confirmed that if someone is ‘powerful enough’, they can simply ‘spend money and remain free’.
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Back in 2012, journalist Geoffrey Sant ran a piece on Hu Bin, a wealthy 20-year-old who was drag racing though the streets of Hangzhou when he struck and killed a pedestrian.
Writing in Slant, Sant explained that the victim was a 25-year-old engineer from a ‘modest background’ and was hit so hard by Bin’s vehicle that he ‘flew at least 20 yards’.
Sant added that ‘Bin and his rich friends nonchalantly smoked cigarettes and laughed while waiting for the police to arrive at the scene’.
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Bin then hired a body double to not only appear as him in court, but also serve the three-year sentence he was handed.
Slant was also able to speak to a Chinese police officer, who refused to be named, but said that hiring ‘replacement convicts’ is ‘not rare’ in the country.
The officer said: “America has the rule of law, but China has the rule of people.
“If somebody is powerful, there’s a good chance they can make this happen. Spend some money and remain free.”
The law enforcement official went on to list ‘several high-ranking mafia figures’ who had subordinates serve prison time in their place.
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Sant was also told that the substitute’s family are cared for by the mafia in return and a bonus is paid for time served.
The practice of hiring a body double to serve prison time even has its own term in China: ding zui or ti-shen, which literally translates to ‘substitute criminal’.
According to The Reeves Law Group, stand-in criminals can be hired for as little as $31(£25) per day of jail time served.
The concept of substitute criminals goes all the way back to 1834, when traveller Karl Gützlaff first wrote about the practice.
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Taiwan missionary George Mackay alleged that he witnessed people being used as replacement convicts in 1895, writing in From far Formosa; the island, its people and missions: “It was an open secret that these men had nothing to do with the case, but were bribed to wear the cangue for six weeks.”
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Topics: China, Crime, World News