Retailers sentenced for skirting import tax

A Shanghai court on Monday sentenced two female shop owners to one year in prison, suspended for 18 months, for buying duty free goods in South Korea and bringing them into China to sell online in 2012, avoiding tens of thousands of yuan in import taxes.

The sentence, which includes fines for the two smugglers, recalls the high-profile case of former flight attendant Li Xiaohang, who has launched an appeal against her 11-year prison term imposed by a court in Beijing for her evasion of 1.09 million yuan ($170,000) in taxes when transporting cosmetic products from South Korea to China on numerous occasions between 2010 and August 2011. Li is still waiting for a decision by the High People's Court of Beijing.

Li's case has been hotly debated, and her sentence is widely considered too harsh.