Shi Jianfeng makes a living carrying sand in two trucks that use the toll roads in Henan Province. On Dec. 21, 2010, the Pingdingshan Intermediate Court of Henan Province sentenced him to life in prison, plus a $2 million yuan fine (approximately US$304,000), for evading 3.68 million yuan (approximately US$559,000) in highway tolls over an eight-month period.
The prosecutor also charged him with having illegally bought two fake military license plates for his two trucks. In China, military vehicles are exempt from tolls.
The sentencing of Shi Jianfeng caused outrage in the media and on the Internet.
Some netizens calculated what would be required to rack up 3.68 million yuan in tolls. According to the official data, the toll fee is 0.45 yuan per kilometer (six-tenths of a mile).
At that rate, the two trucks would need to travel 8.2 million kilometers to owe 3.68 million yuan. If each truck were to drive 12 hours per day, then the speed of each truck would need to average 1,400 kilometers per hour (868 mph) in order to cover 8.2 million kilometers in eight months.
The actual toll, however, is not .45 yuan per kilometer, but .11 yuan per kilometer, according to the assistant manager of the Pingdingshan Branch of Henan Zhongyuan Highway Ltd. (HZHL), which manages the highway. At the toll rate of .11 yuan per kilometer, the trucks would have had to travel at 5,600 kilometers per hour (3,472 mph), several times the speed of a commercial jet.
A toll of .55 yuan per kilometer is charged for a truck 100 percent over the allowed weight, but even at this rate, any trucks would have to travel at jet speed.
The court documents showed that Shi Jianfeng earned 200,000 yuan (US$30,400) from his business, about one-eighteenth the cost of the tolls.
Court Reverses Itself
On Jan. 15, the case took a sharp turn, as Shi Junfeng, the younger brother of Shi Jianfeng, turned himself in to the police. He said that he couldn’t let his brother take the blame for him. He also showed the media contracts relating to the tolls, including one he had signed with a Detachment of the Armed Police, according to which he would pay a 1.2 million yuan (US$182,000) annual fee for the military license plates for four vehicles.
The court reacted very quickly. The next day, Jan. 16, the High Court of Henan Province and the Pingdingshan Intermediate Court held a joint press conference. The case was declared a mistrial, and the court suggested the prosecutor drop the charges. Four judges, including the judge who tried the case, were disciplined.
For Shi Jianfeng, maybe this is a good sign. At least he doesn’t have to spend the rest of his life in jail. For Shi Junfeng, things are not so clear—he is still being held. But the rapid reversal by the court in Shi Jianfeng’s case left the public wondering about questions that have not been answered.
License Plates
The court had accused Shi Jianfeng of using fake military plates. Yet Shi Junfeng had been willing to pay 1.2 million yuan for plates that could cause him big trouble. Obviously, the Shi brothers considered the military license plates to be real.
In China, the Armed Police is considered part of the military because it’s under the Central Military Commission. In the court-sentencing document, the headquarters of the Armed Police of Henan Province was said to have denied the ownership of the trucks and the license plates.
However, most people suspected that the license plates were real. Someone in the Armed Police is most likely stealing and selling the license plates, with or without knowledge of higher-ups.
The corruption of the military is no secret in China. In order to take advantage of the privileges given the military, some criminals use fake military IDs, fake military vehicles, and fake military license plates. Those IDs and license plates are not all fake. Some of them are real, but are not used by the military.
In 2008, it was reported that the head of the military transportation division of the logistics department of the Beijing Military Region Air Force sold many vehicle license plates for his personal interest.
When the Shi brothers brought the documents and plates to the highway toll plaza to apply for an exemption, they were not given any trouble. And they passed several inspections without difficulty. Besides, a 1.2 million yuan annual license fee is much cheaper than 3.68 million yuan for only eight months.
Everyone in China knows that nobody can make money or even survive by paying the tolls. That’s why, even though the public knows that Shi Jianfeng violated the law, most people were sympathetic to him.
Next: Robbery as Economic Policy
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
