Tao Jingzhou and Teng Biao represent the yin and yang of China's justice system. Both graduated from the prestigious Peking University law school, but they have followed very different career paths and been rewarded in very different ways.

Mr Tao works out of the plush Beijing office of the American law firm Jones Day, where he is a partner. In 1977 he belonged to the first batch of Chinese law students in 20 years. "We didn't have any law books," he says, "because there were hardly any laws in China."