CHINESE BUSINESS OWNERS GO GALT: Shenyang Shops Close En Masse Fearing Inspections and Fines.
“More deserted than even Spring Festival [when everybody goes back to their hometown to celebrate the holiday]” is the feeling of many city residents. What more, the situation was even worse in the surrounding areas, because at least in the big city of Shenyang the big supermarkets and restaurants were still open whereas according to local news, 95% of the shops and stores in places like Liaozhong County were closed, to the point where for a time it was impossible to find someplace to buy rice or oil. One Liaozhong resident who was unsuccessful in buying rice said to local media, “If you were to come to Liaozhong at this time and stayed for 5 days, you’d probably starve to death!” . . .
As reported by Shenyang’s local media, ever since July 13th, a large number of businesses in markets such as Dongbei and Wu’ai had closed their doors, the reason being rumors of law enforcement inspecting and cracking down on fake or shoddy products though no one knew just who was doing the inspections. At the time when reporters had contacted both the Industrial and Commercial Administration of the district and the city, both of them said they had not been notified of any law enforcement activities. According to a report by Dongbei News Net, because the crackdown was too ruthless and too strict, some shop owners would rather suffer losses from closing their shops than opening their shops to be checked.
Afterwards, Anshan, Fushun, Benxi, Dalian, and other areas one after another witnessed the phenomenon of large numbers of stores being closed. According to their local media reports, the situations were more or less the same, all reporting rumors of a crackdown on counterfeit or shoddy goods or major inspections to see if the business owners had “all 5 certificates”, “all 6 certificates” or “all 7 certificates” though no one knew just what certificates were required or what authority was making the inspections, only rumors that any problem discovered would result in severe fines, and people didn’t want to “ask for trouble” so they decided to just close their shops for the time being.
One shop owner told this reporter that normally he’s not afraid of inspections, but he thinks the inspections this time aren’t the normal kind, with rumors at the time saying the fines levied were in the tens of thousands of yuan each, and that they were even arresting people and confiscating goods.
Does Thomas Friedman know about this?