Detention of Chinese Businesswoman Owed Money by the State Sparks Public Outcry


在中国经济增长放缓之际，一个陷入停滞的度假村项目引发的争议令地方政府无力偿还债务一事成为关注焦点。


中国经济和房地产市场遭遇的困境导致贵州等省份的土地出让收入减少，而后者是地方财政的重要支柱。

中国南方一个贫困省份的一名女企业家试图追讨政府支持项目工程款，却遭到拘留。此事激起了广泛愤怒，民众觉得国家权力被滥用。 6park.com
The detention of a Chinese businesswoman trying to recoup unpaid fees from government-backed projects in an impoverished stretch of southern China has stirred widespread outrage over a perceived abuse of state power. 6park.com
    
此案的核心是一个如今已陷入停滞的价值数千万美元的度假村开发项目。该案反映出，对于政府有关部门管理国内经济的方式，以及此前挥霍无度的地方政府如今难以偿还债务，中国民众普遍感到不满。 6park.com
The case, centered on a stalled resort development worth tens of millions of dollars, speaks to widespread frustration in China with how authorities are managing the world’s second-largest economy, with previously profligate local governments now struggling to pay their debts. 6park.com
   
这场争议在本周爆发。周日晚间一家官方媒体发表了一篇报道，称建筑承包商马艺珈伊花了数年时间打官司，向贵州省六盘水市水城区政府讨要工程款，去年年底，地方公安以涉嫌寻衅滋事罪将她和她的律师刑事拘留。 6park.com
The controversy erupted this week after a state-run newspaper published a report late Sunday saying that Ma Yijiayi, a construction contractor, spent years waging legal battles to press claims against officials in Shuicheng, a district of Guizhou province, only for local authorities to take her and her lawyers into custody late last year for allegedly disrupting public order. 6park.com
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对此，民营企业家、律师和官方媒体纷纷发声，怀疑当地官员是在试图“以刑化债”，从而缓解财政压力。 6park.com
Private entrepreneurs, lawyers and state-news outlets alike have weighed in, airing suspicions that district officials were trying to use criminal proceedings to fend off debtors and alleviate financial pressures.  6park.com
    
中国疫后经济不振、房地产市场低迷，导致作为地方财政重要支柱的土地出让收入减少，一些官员被迫通过非常规手段来支撑财政。比如，利用执法机构来增加收入，或者是通过像一些观察人士所指出的水城区的做法，来减轻债务压力。 6park.com
China’s post-Covid economic hangover and slumping property market have driven down land-sales revenues that prop up local government coffers, prompting some officials to shore up finances through unorthodox means. This has included using law-enforcement agencies to boost income or—as some observers alleged to be happening in Shuicheng—ease debt pressures. 6park.com
     
一位评论者在社交媒体应用微信上的一篇文章中写道，现在他们装都不装了，直接明抢。文章称，以权压法，握权戏法，有权的老赖最为致命。这篇文章获得了超过10万次的浏览量。 6park.com
“Now they don’t even bother to pretend, they are committing daylight robbery,” one commentator wrote in an essay that garnered more than 100,000 views on the WeChat social-media app. “Using power to suppress the law and grasping power to play tricks, deadbeats with power are the deadliest.”


贵州省的政府部门大量举债，为桥梁和公路建设提供资金。

记者未能联系到马艺珈伊及其律师置评。记者拨打马艺珈伊建筑公司的电话，但没有接通，发给该公司的电子邮件也未立即得到回复。 6park.com
Ma and her lawyers couldn’t be reached for comment. Calls to Ma’s construction company didn’t go through, while queries sent to its email address weren’t immediately answered. 6park.com
     
水城区政府表示，已支付了大部分拖欠的工程款，马艺珈伊因涉嫌侵犯公民个人信息罪和寻衅滋事罪被拘留。水城区政府和公安局没有回复记者的置评请求。 6park.com
Shuicheng authorities said they have already paid most of the owed project fees, and that Ma was detained for allegedly provoking trouble and committing personal-data violations. The Shuicheng government and public-security bureau didn’t respond to requests for comment. 6park.com
    
周二，贵州省高层召开了一次促进民营经济发展的大会，省长要求“全面清理拖欠企业账款”，切实降低民营企业生产运营成本。周三，贵州省政府称，已成立调查组，对马艺珈伊案进行全面审查，并承诺“对侵害民营企业家正当利益的行为严肃追责问责”。 6park.com
Top Guizhou officials on Tuesday convened a conference on promoting private-sector development, where the provincial governor demanded efforts to “comprehensively clean up arrears owed to companies” and reduce costs for private enterprises. On Wednesday, the Guizhou government said it formed an investigation team to review Ma’s case, and promised to “hold sternly accountable any behavior that infringes upon the legitimate interests of private entrepreneurs.” 6park.com
    
46岁的马艺珈伊是回族人，她被拘留的起因是围绕水城区政府拖欠农村开发扶贫项目资金的长期纠纷，马艺珈伊的建筑公司承包了政府开发旅游度假区计划中的部分项目。 6park.com
The detention of Ma, a 46-year-old member of China’s Muslim Hui minority, stemmed from a longstanding dispute over money that authorities in Shuicheng owed for rural development and poverty-relief projects that Ma’s construction business was contracted to build as part of a plan to develop a tourist resort. 6park.com
    
据由国家顶级智库主管的报纸《中国经营报》报道，马艺珈伊从2016年开始承建这些政府项目，包括易地扶贫搬迁工程、学校和度假区等。 6park.com
Ma’s involvement started in 2016, when she started taking on government-backed tenders to build new homes for relocated rural residents, as well as schools and tourist attractions, according to China Business Journal, a newspaper affiliated with a top state-run think tank.  6park.com
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据官媒央广网报道，这些项目规划投资近人民币3亿元（按当前汇率折合约4,200万美元），包括一个自行车赛道和一个鞭陀文化博物馆。鞭陀是一种用鞭子抽打陀螺的传统民俗活动。 6park.com
Worth nearly 300 million yuan, equivalent to around $42 million at current rates, in planned investments, the projects included a bicycle racetrack and a museum themed on “whipping tops,” a traditional folk activity involving the use of whips to spin tops, according to state-run China National Radio. 6park.com
     
据2021年央广网报道，由于度假区开发陷入财务困境，其中一些项目已于2018年停工。报道称，一些建筑和设施烂尾，鞭陀文化博物馆三层楼中的两层分别被改建为超市和会议场所。 6park.com
Some of the projects were halted in 2018 as the resort development ran into financial trouble, according to a CNR report in 2021. Some buildings and facilities became abandoned, while two of the three floors in the “whipping top” museum were repurposed into a supermarket and a conference space respectively, the report said. 6park.com
    
作为中国最贫困省份之一，贵州省的债务问题尤为严重，当地政府部门大量举债，为桥梁和公路建设以及农村发展项目提供资金，这些都是中国领导人习近平消除极端贫困行动的主要举措。 6park.com
Debt woes are particularly acute in Guizhou, one of China’s poorest provinces, where authorities borrowed heavily to fund spending on bridges and highways, as well as rural-development projects that underpin Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s campaign to eradicate extreme poverty. 6park.com
    
据央广网报道，马艺珈伊说，停止一个住宅小区项目的指示是口头传达的，没有正式文件，而且项目费用也没有支付。在随后的一篇央广网报道中，一名负责监管该度假村开发的官员被引述承认存在大量拖欠项目款项的情况，当地有关部门正在向上级和外部来源寻求更多资金。 6park.com
According to CNR, Ma said that instructions to halt a residential-town project were relayed verbally, without official paperwork, and that project fees went unpaid. In a subsequent CNR report, an official overseeing the resort’s development was quoted as acknowledging that there were significant arrears in project payments, and that local authorities were seeking more funds from higher-ups and external sources. 6park.com
    
据《中国经营报》报道，马艺珈伊于2020年初退出了该度假村的开发，仅几周后，政府评估人员认定水城已脱贫。 6park.com
Ma withdrew from the resort development in early 2020, just weeks before government assessors deemed Shuicheng to have eliminated rural poverty, according to China Business Journal.  6park.com
    
据《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)看到的法院文件显示，近年来，马艺珈伊的建筑公司拿到了法院命令以收回一些被拖欠的款项，同时因拖欠供应商款项而被起诉。 6park.com
In recent years, Ma’s construction firm secured court orders to recoup some owed payments, while getting sued over arrears owed to vendors, according to court documents seen by The Wall Street Journal. 6park.com
    
据《中国经营报》报道，水城区政府欠马艺珈伊约人民币2.2亿元的工程款，却在去年11月向马艺珈伊提出一次性支付人民币1,200万元以解决纠纷。该报称，马艺珈伊拒绝了这一提议，不久后，当地警方拘留了她和她的律师。 6park.com
According to China Business Journal, Shuicheng officials offered Ma in November a lump-sum payment of 12 million yuan to settle the dispute despite owing about 220 million yuan in project payments. Ma rejected the offer, and soon after, local police detained her and her lawyers, the newspaper said. 6park.com
    
水城区政府称《中国经营报》的报道不属实。水城区政府周二凌晨发布情况通报，称马艺珈伊承建10个项目共计金额人民币1.633亿元，区里已支付了近90%。 6park.com
Shuicheng authorities said the China Business Journal report was untrue. In a statement published in the early hours of Tuesday, the Shuicheng government said it has paid nearly 90% of the 163.3 million yuan in payments that it says were due for the 10 projects that involved Ma. 6park.com
   
水城区政府在公开回应中指控马艺珈伊和其同伙采取安装GPS定位器等手段跟踪他人，非法获取公民个人信息。回应里还指责马艺珈伊等人编造虚假信息，安排雇佣他人在网上恶意炒作，在公共场所张贴不实大字报和抛散传单。 6park.com
In its statement, the Shuicheng government accused Ma and her associates of illegally acquiring personal data by using GPS gear to track the movements of people, whom it didn’t identify. It alleged that Ma and others propagated false information online, as well as in public areas through posters and fliers. 6park.com
    
这份情况通报称，因马艺珈伊涉嫌侵犯公民个人信息罪和寻衅滋事罪，2023年11月27日公安机关对其刑事拘留。水城区政府在回应中称该案件已经移送检察机关审查起诉。 6park.com
Police detained Ma on Nov. 27 for allegedly infringing upon citizens’ personal information, as well as “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” according to the statement, which said her case has been handed over to prosecutors. 6park.com
    
在社交媒体上，一些用户和官媒评论员称这份情况通报无法让他们信服，并呼吁水城区政府提高透明度。 6park.com
On social media, some users and state-media commentators said they weren’t persuaded by the statement, and called on Shuicheng authorities to be more transparent. 6park.com
    
“究竟有没有‘以刑化债’？内中是否存在隐情？”官媒中国新闻社下属社交媒体平台国是直通车说。“还需官方给出更详细的说明。” 6park.com
“Is there an effort to ‘use criminal punishment to resolve debt?’ Are there hidden secrets behind the scenes?” said Top News Express, a social-media platform affiliated with China News Service, a state-run news agency. “The authorities must provide a more detailed explanation.” 6park.com
    
《中国经营报》没有立即回复记者的询问。此后，关于马艺珈伊被拘留的报道已从《中国经营报》的网站和微信账号上消失。撰写这篇报道的记者起初在社交媒体上为自己的报道辩护，还发布了一些文件的截图，说这些文件证实了他的说法，但他的这个帖子也已消失不见。 6park.com
China Business Journal didn’t immediately respond to queries. Its report on Ma’s detention has since disappeared from the newspaper’s website and WeChat account. The journalist who wrote the report initially went on social media to defend his reporting and post screenshots of documents that he said backed up his claims—though the post has also disappeared. 6park.com
    
一些大咖敦促官员从马艺珈伊案中吸取教训，避免商业信心进一步受损。 6park.com
Some prominent voices urged officials to draw lessons from Ma’s case, and avert further damage to business confidence. 6park.com
   
中共小报《环球时报》(Global Times)前总编辑胡锡进在社交媒体上写道：“各地财政紧张了，一些地方就把企业欠款长期挂在账上，导致了很多基层民营企业的困境。” 6park.com
“Finances in various localities are tight, and some areas have kept debts on their books for a long time, leading to the plight of many grass-roots private enterprises,” Hu Xijin, former editor in chief of the Communist Party tabloid Global Times, wrote on social media. 6park.com
    
胡锡进说，最重要的恐怕还是各地解放思想，搞活经济，千方百计地增加百姓收入，也同时缓解政府的财政紧张。 6park.com
Most important, Hu said, authorities must “invigorate the economy, do everything to raise ordinary people’s incomes, and at the same time, ease the government’s tight finances.”