Corruption At The Top-- In China They Punish It... For Real

Things likely to end badly for corrupt power mongers Xander Feng and Zhou Youngkang

Early last summer we looked at a guest post by Qiao Li, a friend of mine from the neighborhood, China's Naked Officials. "Naked officials (裸体官员)," she explained, "are Chinese bureaucrats who send their family members overseas with the illegal assets they amassed through corruption and graft. These officials are 'naked' as they are the only ones left behind, working hard to accumulate and funnel capital overseas under the names of their relatives to popular destinations like the U.S., Canada and the U.K, investing their transferred funds in financial, real estate, energy, and other lucrative sectors. Banking on bribes to allow forced demolition, business deals, black jails, and news cover up, these 'naked officials' not only use their wealth and power to sideline competing business interests, their immense economic clout obtained through official capacity also allows them to defeat other political factions within the party."

And it isn't just faceless second-echelon bureaucrats who get caught up in this kind of corruption. Just like in the U.S., the higher up the food chain, the more likelihood for bigger corruption. The difference, though, is that if you get caught in China-- no matter what your net worth is-- you are far more likely likely to be punished-- and punished severely. Remember what happened to princeling Xander Feng (actor Terry Chen) in House of Cards? Did you know that China's ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, says he watched both seasons of the show and told the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing that he thinks it "embodies some of the characteristics and corruption that is present in American politics." The show is a huge hit in China and as best as I can remember the last time we saw Xander Feng, he was being deported from the U.S. back to China to face a firing squad, his billions of dollars not the same kind of get-out-of-jail-free card that they would be in the U.S.

Friday, Chris Buckley reported for the NY Times about a real-life higher-up getting caught and getting into the hottest water. This one is Zhou Yongkang, the head of domestic security. He's been arrested and expelled from the Communist Party and charged with everything they could throw at him, from bribetaking and helping family members and cronies plunder government assets to leaking official secrets. Zhou, 72, is the first member of the elite Politburo Standing Committee to face criminal charges based on corruption.

The decision by the Communist Party Politburo, a council of 25 senior officials, to expel Mr. Zhou and place him under a legal investigation made it all but certain that he would face trial, conviction and a heavy sentence from one of the party-run courts that were once part of his political fief.

...State news outlets have said the party’s investigation of Mr. Zhou, which was announced in July, showed Mr. Xi’s determination to eradicate graft that had taken deep root in the government over previous decades.

But the charges now revealed against Mr. Zhou also appear likely to alarm people, because they suggest that China’s police and other domestic security agencies were controlled by a deeply corrupt politician.

The investigators found that Mr. Zhou “exploited his position to obtain unlawful gains for multiple people, and directly or indirectly through his family took massive bribes,” the Xinhua report said.

In addition, the report said, Mr. Zhou “exploited his powers to help relatives, mistresses and friends make massive earnings through their business activities, creating massive losses for state-owned assets.”

Mr. Zhou also disclosed party and state secrets and traded favors and money for sex with multiple women, the report said.

The announcement did not reveal further details behind the charges against Mr. Zhou. But the accusations that he exploited power to enrich family members and friends appeared to refer to Mr. Zhou’s longstanding influence in the energy sector.

An investigation by the New York Times documented that Mr. Zhou’s son, a sister-in-law and his son’s mother-in-law held assets worth about 1 billion renminbi, or $160 million, much of it in the oil and gas industries.

In China, criminal investigations of officials on corruption charges usually only start after party investigators have finished their inquiry. Mr. Zhou is now exceedingly unlikely to escape trial, conviction and a heavy prison sentence.