 Free-Wheeling Vendors |
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| Free-Wheeling Vendors |
Page 5 of 5 |
| Many Ways to Beat the
System Resellers will go to greater lengths than farmers to avoid paying management fees and taxes at the designated free market areas. They frequently set up ad hoc shops wherever there's no sign of police. But they keep an eye out for the police and quickly pack up their goods if they see the police approaching. |
 Ad hoc shop in a department store parking lot in downtown Beijing. |
| Some Get Caught In general, the police are surprisingly tolerant. They often turn their backs or politely nudge a free-wheeling vendor to move on. Rarely do they impose fines, particularly if the resellers are from other provinces. However, starting in the spring of 1998, the police are cracking down much harder than before, waiting at the entrance to a free market to catch vendors who try to sell without paying the market fee and fining those who appear to have that intention by simply having a counterbalance scale in their possession. The Chinese police don't apply the principle of "innocent until proven guilty". |
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