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A report on Vocativ reports on rumors on Chinese social media and
Taiwanese newspapers that the rich and powerful hire "body doubles"
to go on trial for them and even serve their prison sentences.
High-profile Chinese trials, like those of Gu Kalai (the wife of Bo
Xilai, convicted of murdering Neil Heywood), and Hu Bin (the son of
an important official who killed a man in a hit-and-run, using a
Mitsubishi custom sports car) have attracted speculation about the
use of <em>ti-shen</em>, poor people hired to stand in for the rich
perps. When they appeared in court, their appearances were arguably
different from their earlier media photos.
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