DOI: 10.11648/j.ijls.20260903.15 ISSN: 2640-1908

Criminal Liability of “Business Shutdown Enforcers”: A Comparative Study on Emerging Legal Accountability Challenges in China and Beyond

Hongshan Duan
Show PDF Cite
The rise of "Business Shutdown Enforcers" in China, a profession where individuals are tasked with forcibly closing businesses, often through coercive or borderline illegal methods, poses distinct challenges to Chinese criminal law. While civil remedies provide some regulatory mechanisms, the absence of criminal law responses highlights gaps in addressing coercive practices that exploit legal grey areas. This paper examines these gaps within China’s criminal law framework, focusing on whether and how existing provisions, such as those related to extortion, property damage, or unlawful interference, can be applied to regulate such behavior. To contextualize these challenges globally, the paper further explores analogous examples from other jurisdictions. Aggressive debt collection practices in the United States and United Kingdom, often criticized for skirting the boundaries of legality, reveal similar accountability gaps, while protection rackets managed by organized crime groups such as the Mafia in Italy or the Yakuza in Japan further highlight the harm caused by coercive practices that destabilize businesses and communities. In South Korea, extrajudicial business disruptions during labor disputes exemplify the legal tensions between economic interests and enforcement. Together, these examples demonstrate a shared international struggle to regulate unconventional professions operating in legal grey zones, and underscore that criminal law must evolve to address such emerging accountability challenges, particularly in cases where existing provisions fail to capture the full scope of harm caused by these professions. By analyzing regulatory approaches across jurisdictions, this study provides a framework for developing more robust legal mechanisms, not only in China but in other countries facing similar issues, offering insights into how criminal law can adapt to meet the needs of an evolving society.

More from our Archive