I do China stuff instead of study.

Outlining freakin sucks. Omg. Five sit-down finals. It feels like 1L year all over again.

So I will distract myself instead! Whee!

So here's what I think is kind of odd about this announcement that Shenzhen is implementing rule of law goals and standards: Shenzhen is not a prime example of rule of law.

First, a little background on Special Economic Zones (SEZs): SEZs are special because they are intended to be economic, and occasionally political, sandboxes. To that end, the government of an SEZ is given certain autonomy in its decisions making. The major legal check on that power is the approval power of the provincial government for every measure implemented by the SEZ, which is the same power the province has over all its immediate subordinate governmental units. This power, however, is subject to a limitation that makes SEZs so special: that approval power only extends to SEZs insofar as the measures affect the entire geographical area of the SEZ.

Shenzhen, and other SEZs, take advantage of this limitation and implement measures that only have effect in perhaps half of its administrative subsections. And believe me when I say that this is incredibly loaded. There are, as I remember, 7 subsections in Shenzhen, and something like 90% of the SEZ government measures only affect 5 of those subsections that border Hong Kong. The number of measures that actually affect the other geographic areas are very general in nature and are much like the everyday laws that are passed elsewhere in China, i.e., not likely to be rejected by the provincial government.

The important result of this imbalance, though, is that those 5 subsections are by far the most developed areas of Shenzhen. Why? Because the rule of law has been implemented, encouraged, and enforced in those areas. The other areas do not enjoy that attention...and I fail to see how it is likely that they will enjoy that. What is the incentive to do so? And including those areas in a rule of law sort of movement might subject Shenzhen's decisions to provincial approval mechanisms, which is likely to undermine the very sandbox environment that could even give rise to a push for the rule of law.

Basically, I can't see how it's much more than political puffery. Which, considering that it is in regard to the rule of law, of course leads to the irony I enjoy so much.

I'm also curious what Google is up to. Investing that much time and effort in China implies a physical product release, or off-shoring of technical expertise, or both. The former is most likely, however; technical internet development expertise tends to go to India.