Provincial Govt to Give Business People a Break

We've seen a lot of stories of how factories have been closing in Guangdong Province. In fact, with this whole global crisis thing, conditions for businesses in Guangdong have become quite stressful.

Fortunately, the Guangdong Procurator's Office has business peoples' backs. According to a story in today's SCMP:

The provincial prosecutors' office announced on Tuesday that to "guarantee the stable development of the economy", law and order authorities, such as the Public Security Bureau, might not detain or arrest legal representatives of businesses, daily operations chiefs, and technical staff who are suspected of "general crimes".

According to a statement posted on its website, the prosecutors' office urged all lower-level branches to follow new guidelines to help businesses in difficulty, saying the goal was to advance Guangdong's economic development.

Perhaps if some business people are allowed to sneak out of restaurants without paying, or view a little pornography on the internet, they will make better business decisions...

While it's nice that authorities understand the connection between economic growth and the "freedom" of entrepreneurs, maybe their energies would be better focused on encouraging more (legal) channels for funding of entrepreneurial ventures. Or how about just lowering taxes?