China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33y0n1v1xjo

353 486 15 days ago

mothballed6• 15 days ago

Main difference between death penalty in US and China, is in US police officers easily sentence subjects to death and the courts do it with great difficulty. In China the inverse.

For instance, high level executive Bryan Malinowski was executed by the ATF and barely anyone noticed, but if the courts had sentenced him in such way, there would be great outrage.

arjie• 15 days ago

Interesting story. This guy was actually airport director at the airport in Little Rock, AR. He used to buy and sell a bunch of guns and was an avid collector. He was killed when ATF agents raided his home and he responded with gunfire. The controversy seems to circle around the fact that:

* the ATF decided not to raid his home when he was out of town but early in the morning when he was at home

* the ATF gave him 28 seconds to comply with their announcement after which they battered the door down

Given the fact that the agents weren't wearing body cameras, the guy had a normal day job that he'd go to, and that 28 seconds is certainly too short to dispose of firearms it does seem a lot like execution served by way of search warrant. Certainly, I wouldn't be able to let anyone in 28 s after waking up to pounding on my door.

lux-lux-lux2• 15 days ago

executed

He was shot after opening fire, unprovoked, on federal agents performing a search of his home under a lawfully obtained warrant.

mothballed6• 15 days ago

Willingly and with aforethought engineering a situation that is practically guaranteed provoke an asleep person with ~no notice in the early morning to "unprovoked" defend themselves and wife against unknown people breaking into their home in order to lawfully "defend" one's self is execution in my book.

I can understand if there's some imminent threat but there was none. He was going to wake up, and report to a secure airport full of cops and federal agents. But they couldn't resist engineering a situation that ended up with him dead, doing what anyone would do to protect their wife when given ~zero time to distinguish threats entering their home at night.

Now you can argue maybe it wasn't an execution, and only their acts were indistinguishable from what those doing an execution would do.

OkayPhysicist• 14 days ago

If you violently bust into someone's home in the United States, you're liable to, and absolutely deserve to, get shot. I do not care if you have a badge. If you want to execute a lawful search warrant, the best time to do it is when nobodies home. The second best time is during the day, when you can clearly state your legal mandate to be there, and allow the homeowner to comply.

The ATF in this instance (and frankly most instances) chose the most violent option available to them, because good people don't join the ATF. Violent thugs who get off on shooting dogs join the ATF. And when they get tired of shooting dogs, they decide to manufacture a scenario where they get to kill a more dangerous game.

MaxHoppersGhost• 15 days ago

Wonder who this guy pissed off in the CCP.

Exoristos• 15 days ago

It starts with an "X" and ends with an "i."

onion2k2• 15 days ago

I don't really understand the mentality of people who do this sort of criminal activity. If he'd stopped after, say, $5m and just retired he'd probably have managed to get away with it. Continuing to such a ridiculous degree through sheer greed led him to a death sentence. That's just plain stupid.

mothballed6• 15 days ago

Once you start high-profile criminal activity you have to keep doing it to pay off the right people, as soon as you retire you're fucked.

starik36• 15 days ago

Think of Breaking Bad. His wife literally asked him this same question. When is it enough?

It's a mentality where you can't stop.

iamacyborg• 15 days ago

Breaking Bad is a work of fiction.

toephu22• 15 days ago

Yup, it's called greed. It's a part of human nature. That's one reason societies create laws and penalties: to discourage harmful behavior and keep that instinct in check.

lonely_wanderer• 15 days ago

In for a penny, in for a pound. Unless you are extremely crafty, you don’t get to retire from this sort of criminality. Everyone who enabled you wants more and you have a semi-permanent metaphorical sword hanging over your head.

vitally3643• 15 days ago

Or you use your single digit millions of currency to buy an island and retire for a decade or two while everyone forgets you exist

onion2k2• 15 days ago

Unless you are extremely crafty, you don’t get to retire from this sort of criminality.

He got away with it for 30 years. That shows at least some level of craftiness.

hulitu• 15 days ago

Unless you are extremely crafty, you don’t get to retire from this sort of criminality.

You should come to [insert your favourite EU country here].

SoftTalker• 15 days ago

Everyone who enabled you wants more

And once you've taken the first bribe, they now have leverage.

jjk166• 15 days ago

It's the wielding of power which is intoxicating, the monetary amount just illustrates how many decisions he could personally influence.

throwaway274484• 15 days ago

People get away with this all the time—you just only hear about the stupid ones.

__patchbit__• 15 days ago

$2 million in cash flushed down the toilet, manually, that clogged the sanitation system was a very stupid funny one.

d5lt5• 15 days ago

The culture of bribes is a bit different in China. 'Mutually assured corruption' describes the situation better.

tobinfekkes• 15 days ago

I think your logic makes sense, if this was both logical and about the money. But it seems to be more about greed, discontentment, and "more". There is no limit to "more".

toephu22• 15 days ago

It's called greed, as you aptly pointed out.

csours• 15 days ago

This is load bearing guanxi

cess112• 15 days ago

This kind of crime means you develop a network around you that won't stop having expectations of you just because you think you have enough for your eventual retirement.

They'll basically be your friends, partners and coworkers. Making a sudden change in how you associate with each other can have rather negative consequences, ranging from anxiety to them trying to murder you.

TrackerFF• 15 days ago

I sometimes see people "celebrate" this, with the rationale that China is cracking down on white-collar crimes and handing out sentences unheard of in the west.

But, are these sort of things just examples of selective prosecution? Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing, if they were to be caught doing the same?

mittensc4• 15 days ago

You can ask the same about inner circle of current US leadership

It will have the same answer, no

who would be able to prosecute them and how?

who would even investigate them

MattDamonSpace• 15 days ago

Yeah but that’s bad right

NooneAtAll33• 15 days ago

You're trying to approach from the wrong side

it's not a question of "prosecute this one or the other person" - it's the choice between "prosecute this one or nobody"

thus celebration that at least something got done

grvbck2• 15 days ago

I understand that perspective to some degree, but imagine a hypothetical country with say, two parties in power, where prosecutors only crack down on white collar criminals if they are supporters of one party and not the other. We would call that system corrupt, and probably not celebrate that at least some of the criminals face justice.

Also, from a practical standpoint, charging some and not others is not necessarily better if the selection is made politically. That moves the needle from "at least something got done" to "law is just a tool of oppression".

glenstein3• 15 days ago

it's the choice between "prosecute this one or nobody"

Even that assumes a normal of being lucky that anything is prosecuted, ever. So it's good but against a low bar rather than rising to the bar parent commenter suggested.

palmotea2• 15 days ago

But, are these sort of things just examples of selective prosecution? Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing, if they were to be caught doing the same?
thus celebration that at least something got done

Is it really something to celebrate if:

1. Someone got sentenced to death because they lost some internal power struggle, and bribery was falsely used as the public reason?

2. The guy's getting killed as a scapegoat, or because he pissed off his superiors by not sharing more of his bribes, etc.?

throwaway274484• 15 days ago

At least they try to appear anti-corruption—that's certainly more than you can say about the west.

lysace2• 15 days ago

Don't confuse "the west" with the US. The US is less than half of "the west".

Aunche3• 15 days ago

It's easy to appear anti-corruption if you have complete control your country's internet and almost as much control of your country's internet.

ozgrakkurt• 15 days ago

Killing people in any context is barbaric because it is not possible to bring someone back from the dead.

I’m not a law expert but it seems pretty basic that there shouldn’t be irreversible punishment.

Also there should be equity which means everyone that does the same crime should face the same consequence, which doesn’t happen anywhere in the world as far as I can understand.

So harsher punishment means people with less power will get shafted harder

luqtas• 15 days ago

barbaric is society which has half of the worlwide population living with less than 6 USD per day in borderline slavery

cavoirom• 15 days ago

I’m not a law expert but it seems pretty basic that there shouldn’t be irreversible punishment.

I agree with you, but we also can't reverse entropy.

lenkite• 15 days ago

So what is the alternative punishment for folks like this who have destroyed the lives of countless people ? Hard labour for life in a mine until death ?

sethammons2• 15 days ago

there shouldn’t be irreversible punishment

I am not convinced. "You can no longer hold office" is a permanent punishment. Why should that not be allowed?

Also there should be equity which means everyone that does the same crime should face the same consequence

I am also unconvinced. I don't think it is fair to treat a child like an adult and I think those in power should have more stringent standards and larger consequences for violating them.

godwinson__4-82• 15 days ago

Just to be clear - you can't really "reverse" most things. The arrow of time only moves in one direction. People who are jailed and then exonerated do not have their lives "reversed". Their future circumstances are changed. Maybe they are compensated. But they still suffered in jail. You cannot erase that part of their reality anymore than you can raise the dead. This is not to discount your point that making amends while someone is still alive is seen as preferable.

Of course, attempts are made to "reverse" even after someone had been put to death. Posthumous pardons are a thing. It may not bring anything to the person who has passed, but it could give somewhat similar benefits to living descendants.

It's just to say we shouldn't undermine how impactful something like incarceration is on the theory that it is "reversible". Evidence suggests such experiences mess people up in pretty severe ways. Lets also remember thinking of death in these distinct terms may be very cultural. Few penal systems escape barbarity. There are worse things than death. There are many instances or societies were it is preferable or expected people kill themselves rather than go through something like the ignominy of incarceration.

As to the last line, I'm also not sure. Brutal societies have a way of turning on themselves. Nations that accord more protections to their people are generally a better place for their rulers, even if the reverse is not always true. Personally I would love a legal system that baked into its norms higher punishments for people with more power. I think these have existed in the past, even if enforced through less modern mechanisms.

It is also the case that people in power do things that people with less power are incapable of. Getting rid of notions of executive privilege or qualified immunity would be a good start. The way the law is written currently, people in power won't simply not be punished - they won't even be charged. Take George Bush. Did he ever even just have to testify under oath about the rationale for the Iraq War once? Would the United States really descend into a banana republic if he had been charged for perjury or war crimes? It seems like the push in that direction can instead trace its genesis to the fact that in America, we evidently make our leaders untouchable.

afroboy• 14 days ago

Does that killing is bad apply to other nations with different beliefs than you?

casey2• 15 days ago

The top is already pushed with prisoner for life. In a tiered society a well functioning country focuses on the tier that is current bottleneck.

toomuchtodo• 15 days ago

A win is a win. Could there be more wins? Glass is half full.

ianm2183• 15 days ago

5 of the 7 highest ranking officials have been purged in recent years [1].

It’s not totally clear what the consequences were for those purged or if their crimes were legit but seems like they are all in prison.

[1]. https://www.afpc.org/publications/articles/the-inevitability...

axus• 15 days ago

Russia is even tougher on corrupt oligarchs

jandrese2• 15 days ago

I'm not saying that those guys weren't corrupt, but that's a classic authoritarian pattern. Purging anybody who might potentially in the future be a threat to your rule is step two in any authoritarian playbook. Were they perchance replaced with unambitious yes men?

Barrin92• 15 days ago

Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing

no need to speculate, it's already happened. Zhou Yongkang who was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (the highest governing body in Chinese politics) was prosecuted, and up until that point people at the top were considered relatively untouchable. Xi also axed the last to vice chairmen of the central military commission, Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, that's the commander in chief of the PLA.

lordgilman2• 15 days ago

The Zhou Yongkang incident happened over a decade ago, it happened in roughly the first year of Xi Jinping's tenure, Zhou Yongkang was a supporter of the also-purged Bo Xilai, and while he was still in power he ran the department responsible for internal security. I don't doubt the guy was corrupt but this is exactly the sort of target you go after if you want to maintain your own grip on power.

lyu072822• 15 days ago

Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing, if they were to be caught doing the same?

The west is inundated with simplistic anti-chinese propaganda, so you would never perceive it as such, the way it would be presented to you in the west is as the evil dictator Xi Jingping purging his opposition, for instance:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-41670162

dirck-norman2• 15 days ago

Correct, so long as there is a state controlled media and no independent media and we can only speculate on where people who have “disappeared” from public view are, this is exactly the position everyone should hold.

This is single party autocracy, no matter how much people cry about propaganda.

noufalibrahim• 15 days ago

Probably not but it's hard to really pin this down. On the one hand, China's rise has in the recent past has been phenomenal but that kind of rapid cleanup has always been accompanied by repression and destruction of political rivals. So. perhaps a bit of both.

pjc50• 15 days ago

I think the way to determine how real this is: is the corruption allowed to damage the real economy? Most of the problems of Africa and South America are linked to that answer being "yes".

mushufasa• 15 days ago

Xi Jinping rose to power on a message of anti-corruption, and part of the reason he remains in power on an indefinite term is by presenting himself as the "only trusted" person to maintain anti-corruption amongst all the factions.

While I'm sure he doesn't catch all corruption and the CCP overall has selective enforcement, the reason they do have measures like this is in large part because of Xi Jinping's specific reputation and positioning.

nonethewiser4• 15 days ago

You seem to be circling the issue. Corruption can mean anything from taking bribes to exerting influence that is outside Xi’s interests.

seanmcdirmid5• 15 days ago

All presidents rise to power on a message of anti-corruption, they all clean house when they start in office but usually it falls off until the next president takes over. The problem Xi has is that now that he is now president for life, the house isn't getting cleaned in the usual way every 10 years; he has to do a corruption purge every so often or things will get grimey.

sumedh• 14 days ago

Xi Jinping rose to power on a message of anti-corruption

Just like Trump and Modi

tyre2• 15 days ago

Xi has shown repeatedly that he’s serious about corruption. As others have noted, some of the highest civilian and military officials have been removed for it. Some sentenced to death.

He sees it as a challenge to his legitimacy and China’s power, which, as you’d expect are the most important things to him; even if you take the most cynical view.

Another timely example, because it is the World Cup, is the Chinese football programs. They’ve been decimated because of corruption prosecutions, both executives and players. It’s a major reason why China isn’t competitive on the global stage, which much smaller countries with significantly smaller budgets can compete. And, yes, Xi does care about competing in the World Cup. Prestige is very important to his concept of China’s honor and global standing.

nonethewiser4• 15 days ago

He sees it as a challenge to his legitimacy and China’s power

This right here is why “corruption” should be looked on with great skepticism. In an authoritarian government basic liberties we take for granted in the West are considered corruption. You know, like having a say in how people are governed. This is a high crime in a state with 1 party that cannot be replaced.

In that way, “corruption” can mean “not being loyal to the dictator.”

haunter2• 15 days ago

tbh my take as someone who follows sports heavily: China is just not good at team sports. If we consider the most relevant ones (part of the Olympics games):

- volleyball. Probably their best team sport. Men's team have nothing to show but the women's team won the competition 3 times (1984, 2004, 2016) and the World Cup twice (1982, 1986)

- basketball. Women's team are usually there at the Olympic games and they won a silver medal in 1992 and a bronze in 1984 but nothing ever since. They were the runner ups in the last World Cup final (2022) against the US. Men's team have 0 results.

- football, irrelevant. Men's team only qualified to the World Cup once in 2002. Women's team is slightly better being the runner up once in 1999, and they also won silver medal in the 1996 Olympic games. But that was a one generation thing, nothing to show ever since.

- water polo, irrelevant. Women's team is slightly better usually qualifying for the Olympic games but 0 results. Same at the World Cup.

- baseball/softball, irrelevant.

- field hockey, irrelevant.

- handball, irrelevant.

- rugby sevens, irrelevant.

China is good at group sports where everyone have to do the same thing together (artistic swimming and diving) but team sports needs individuals working together where everyone have to be good at their given position, in their own little world, so almost the exact opposite.

Sammi2• 15 days ago

It's like you're so close to getting it. Xi is serious about "corruption" alright. It's just that in an authoritarian state "corruption" is really just used as a euphemism for illoyality.

bamboozled• 15 days ago

The problem seems to be that "he" chooses who is corrupt and who isn't', right?

This is a person who invites war criminals to his country and rolls out the red carpet...then again...

maerF0x02• 15 days ago

to his concept of China’s honor and global standing.

Or his sinocentricity and even racism (as in superiority of chinese people). There's been a long standing view in China about their own superiority of others, including all the way into the way they view their national pride as extending back further than any other civilization, even though external historians might view it more like several disjoint civilizations in a similar region... Kinda like how we don't call American history as starting when previous groups from contemporary russian crossed ice bridges to the Americas... We say it started in 1776 because it was a new major iteration of the regime.

JumpCrisscross3• 15 days ago

Xi has shown repeatedly that he’s serious about corruption

Xi is also fantastically corrupt. He wasn’t born a billionaire.

jr3592• 15 days ago

Absolutely love it. The West could take some notes. And to those who would jump to downvote, ask yourself why one country is on the rise, and the other is in a drain spiral.

insane_dreamer3• 15 days ago

Xi has shown repeatedly that he’s serious about corruption.

that's BS

cracking down on corruption has been a common tactic for decades to get rid of people who are a threat to the top dog at the CCP, and Xi has employed this perhaps better than anyone since Mao

are those people being purged corrupt? probably most are. but plenty of people who are corrupt aren't purged, it's a highly selective process.

Xi started this a few years after coming into power -- and it was obviously to the educated class was it was (I was living in Beijing at the time), but "mei banfa" (or emigrate, as many people with the $/ability to do so, did).

stasomatic• 14 days ago

Xi has shown repeatedly that he’s serious about corruption. As others have >noted, some of the highest civilian and military officials have been removed for >it. Some sentenced to death.

Honest question to anyone who may be from China - the perception I've been fed in the US is that almost every bureaucrat is on the take. They certainly were in the USSR, you had to "know someone" to get anything done or just eat.

Perhaps it's just a RIF.

ActorNightly3• 15 days ago

Not everything that Chinese leadership does is perfect, they have made mistakes, but overall, leadership that is openly like "we need to maintain a tight control over the population for stability" is generally more trustworthy than that campaigns on freedom and small government only to get in power and make themselves richer.

jychang• 15 days ago

Only if society needs more security.

You can’t squeeze blood from a brick. At a certain point, you need to tolerate a little messiness to optimize societal growth.

Think of it as a dial you can turn clockwise or counterclockwise:

Security <——> Freedom

A healthy society would have good feedback mechanisms that allow it to change the dial of the government in power, to adjust to the current situation. Obviously, there’s no one optimal position; to use a historical example: Churchill was great for Britain during WW2, and immediately elected out afterwards.

nonethewiser4• 15 days ago

Yes. The Chinese people trade freedom for good governance.

The problem is, if they dont like their governance they cant trade it back for their freedom.

godwinson__4-82• 15 days ago

This often gets missed. Of course, it can be repulsive. But I sort of appreciate how honest other societies are about their social problems. In the United States there is a lot of doublespeak. The current president is actually quite refreshing in this regard, or at least was for a time.

The way the mainstream media freaked out about him asking Bill O'Reilly, "what, you think our country is so innocent?" is a good example. Or saying we're in Venezuela for oil at the outset. Or talking about how they killed so many Iranians they don't even know who they are negotiating with anymore. I mean at least we didn't have to suffer through fumbling Bushisms about freedom. If the day ever comes when presidents are held to the same standards as the people, then ironically in many regards we will have to at least give him some points for honesty... it is quite sad how he is the only person to succeed to such an extent on such an "outsider", really anticorruption message ("drain the swamp"), then turn around and do the same thing. I think it is probably related to the core problem of American society - the doublespeak, the dual consciousness, the resistance to self reflection. People don't want honest answers - including to their own complicity (who elected these people anyway?). They want slogans. The results are sad, but predictable. A society that elects (and then worse, reelects) someone like Trump to end corruption is clearly a society that cannot look itself in the mirror. The same goes for the other side of the aisle. The "democracy" party that has no primaries and says it's either "fascism" or geriatric grandpa. We take this election very seriously that is why we have nominated a corpse. Don't mention it or you're a fascist. No you don't get another choice. Vote for us or democracy dies...

Sad... maybe if politics was a venue where people weren't punished for being honest we wouldn't have such low quality politicians. Brings to mind the George Carlin line:

That would be a nice realistic campaign slogan for somebody: 'The public sucks. Elect me.'"

chaostheory• 15 days ago

These are mainly political purges dressed up as “anti corruption drives”. Not ideal, but at least someone high up is getting punished compared to slaps on the wrist in the West.

jmyeet• 15 days ago

It's fascinating to see the effects of anti-China propaganda. There are plenty of stories about China cracking down on corruptiojn yet people need to do contortions to make this anti-China somehow.

There's no evidence that Xi Jinping is like Putin (who has enriched himself to abe unknown but expectedly high dgree), no evidence the military generals have enriched themselves with corruption (again, like Russia) or really anything else. Instead there's evidence that the likes of Jack Ma, a billionaire, are brought to heel, China has cracked down on so-called yin-yang contracts, sentenced to death people who messed with the baby formula supply chain and so on.

People really should reflect on why they're so willing to seek confirmation bias and why they have that bias at all.

Here's a tip: if you take anything China says or does at face value you will be more correct than 95% of the China "experts" that have entrenched themselves in the media and Western policy circles.

1234letshaveatw• 15 days ago

Is reflection really necessary? On why they're so willing to seek confirmation bias on a self appointed dictator for life and why they have that bias towards a self appointed dictator for life? Isn't it self evident?

wat10000• 15 days ago

Even if it's politically motivated, it's still punishment for a real and serious crime. Compare to prosecuting someone for touching a pool that the president happens to really care about for no good reason.

expedition32• 15 days ago

Corruption endangers the CCP rule and weakens China why would they not self purge?

Everyone in China knows how dynasties end.

ncruces• 15 days ago

Has the dictator been removed for it? Someone cherished by them? Or are we to assume those are impollute?

seanmcdirmid5• 15 days ago

Inner circle members of the CCP are the first to fall because their competitors wouldn't dare not use it against them. The whole Bo Xilai mess a decade and a half ago is a good example of that.

altairprime• 15 days ago

The West would benefit from an increase in prosecution of $100M+ financial crimes, regardless of whether that prosecution is fair or uniform. Many will avoid such crimes, even when they might be allowed them by corruption, simply to avoid being held hostage to that same corruption. That doesn’t mean that corruption is a great thing (it’s not), but frequent and capricious enforcement is somewhat better relative to today’s infrequent and erratic enforcement.

Aeolun• 15 days ago

are these sort of things just examples of selective prosecution

Maybe, but they hit the rich. All the selective prosecution in the US hits those least able to resist.

bryanlarsen3• 15 days ago

Counter-example: Sam-Bankman Fried. Biden's second biggest donor. Sentenced to 25 years in jail. Prosecuted even though it wasn't a clear cut case so there were excuses to hang a lack of prosecution on. No pardon.

christina97• 15 days ago

Selective prosecution and tough punishment can still be a net positive vs no punishment. (I am not saying it necessarily is nor that I would celebrate this.)

The CCP derives a significant part of its legitimacy from improving quality of life and living standards for the common Han Chinese. Waste and fraud that harms consumers is a drag on this progress; the incentives somewhat align. Real economic harm often causes real political harm.

anepoitilivam5• 15 days ago

You are murdering people for so much less..

In Iran, Gaza, Russia (no no, it is not you, it is.. "Ukraine").

You are much worse than them, actually. Though believing yourself to be the light of civilization, soulless robots..

pessimizer2• 15 days ago

The US has four times as many prisoners per capita as China, the "police state."

edit: some interesting trivia. Due to the combination of America's incarceration rate, a racist justice system, and a completely wealthless and desperate class of freed slaves who were never compensated (although their owners were), Black Americans are 0.5% of the world's population but 5% of the world's prison population.

maxglute8• 15 days ago

Xi's been anticorruption for 10+ years, CCDI has prosecuted MILLIONs, including his own faction/clique i.e. even Xi doesn't have that much enemies. Westoids just can't fathom it's simply a systematic, competent drain the swamp program designed to change culture an work through the huge backlog of illict behavior form 30+ years of under regulated development.

nradov• 15 days ago

It's a systematic, competent purge the political rivals program.

mrandish4• 15 days ago

Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing

Almost certainly. But it's not simple to understand because four things are simultaneously true:

1. Corruption is a serious problem Xi is genuinely focused on reducing through high-profile prosecutions with extreme sentences.

2. Xi and his party lieutenants have certainly used corruption charges to eliminate central party 'Titans' because they got too powerful, got too greedy, or were deemed insufficiently 'loyal'.

3. Corruption is pervasive at almost every level and there's no way most of it can be eliminated anytime soon. In fact, the system relies on it to function as well as it does. The purpose of these high-profile prosecutions is only to reduce the size and frequency of corruption. It reminds officials that stealing half the money half the time can be bad for their health. So they stick closer to taking 10-20% only 10-20% of the time.

4. The sub-1% of corrupt officials who are prosecuted, likely end up being busted because they got 'too greedy' and were made a sacrificial lamb by their corrupt peers to fill the system's need for a few high-profile examples. The 'too greedy' isn't from taking too much, it's usually from not greasing enough palms with enough money (including the provincial corruption investigators themselves). When there's tens of millions of dollars of illicit money at stake, the dynamics become like de facto organized crime mobs and there's always competition between factions. This guy probably knows exactly which rival played the game better and beat him.

asdfman123• 15 days ago

It's like unlimited PTO. Take a reasonable amount of PTO and you're fine, but if you actually treat it as unlimited then you'll get fired.

hbd-investor4• 15 days ago

As opposed to the US where even if white collar criminals are caught and punished they get pardoned by Biden or Trump, Obama, etc... Every US president has pardoned white collar criminals

fragmede4• 15 days ago

Biden didn't pardon SBF.

ColdStream2• 15 days ago

I see it as being sort of like how every 6 months someone is made an example of by the media and they need their retribution. It is a means of keeping people at ease and that the narrative of the system works, 'the bad person' will be punished, just like in the movies. All is well.

Admittedly, in a lot of the western world one side of the conversation has seen Trump take this place, only without any sort of completion of the narrative arc. Good for business, bad for emotional strength for some people. Will be interesting to see what comes after him.

goobatrooba• 14 days ago

While other commenters take the lesson that Xi goes after corruption, I would restate it:

* he goes after corrupt officials, in both minor roles and very public big cases; and * he also accused inconvenient people (mostly potential contenders) of corruption to get rid of them (see the list of party leaders purged since Xi came to power, with some even led off stage at the main CCP Congress in a show of power). * How many corrupt officials are not persecuted due to political favouritism is by definition impossible to know from the outside.

lofaszvanitt• 14 days ago

Just look what corruption does to russia. Total brainfuck, kleptocracy, subhuman idiots everywhere.

1970-01-01• 15 days ago

I wonder if he could have lived if it was just one $325M bribe and not 30 years of bribery.

varispeed• 15 days ago

It's a shame we relabelled corruption as lobbying. The damage it has done is untold.

One thing that China does should be adopted in the West.

hbd-investor4• 15 days ago

trump and biden both pardoned tons of white collar criminals

jibal5• 15 days ago

The first is true, the second is a lie. The motto of Trump's pardon office is "No MAGA left behind."

superxpro12• 14 days ago

Classic whataboutism and both sides are the same in a single sentence? wow thats a new record!

Trump's pardons far exceed what Biden did in terms of scope and corruption. Trump's literally collecting bribes for pardons. There has been multiple confirmed, documented cases of someone donating to his reelection fund or buying trump coins, and then receiving a pardon in short order.

This is blatant misrepresentation to try and justify the unprecedented corruption by the current administration. He will be documented as the most corrupt president ever, even surpassing U.S.Grant for the title.

feverzsj• 15 days ago

A relatively low level official can't take this much bribes. More like a scapegoat.

throwaway274484• 15 days ago

Over thirty years? I am surprised he didn't take more.

mothballed6• 15 days ago

Nah he took the bribes and probably paid 90% upward/laterally. Being the guy that actually takes the bribe is likely part of how he got promoted to where he is, in a way, like a soldier who gets promoted for being a calculated risk taker.

gitpusher• 15 days ago

It's not outside the realm of possibility for the positions he occupied. But yes, corruption is selectively cracked down upon in China

hangonhn• 15 days ago

Hang on. City level officials play an incredibly important role in China. While Nanjing is not in the same tier as Shanghai, Beijing, or Shenzhen, it is in the tier just below them. It is the provincial capital of one of China's most important provinces -- GDP similar to Texas. Many large Chinese companies are often tied to specific cities -- they get grants and subsidies via the city they are located in.

This guy did it over 30 years so it is feasible.

Scapegoat isn't the right term but I think it is very possible he is being executed to essentially send a message. I think your bigger point that there are way more corrupt officials than just this guy involved seems very plausible.

jjcm• 15 days ago

Just to add more context to this - he accepted ~$10 million a year while managing a city that has a population larger than New York City.

The GDP of the city was 278.9 billion USD in 2025.

alcasa• 15 days ago

That's not how this works. It really depends on how close you are to a position, where people might want to bribe you. Low provincial officials with direct ties to local land development might e.g. be able to take many more bribes than a highly ranked official in an office that is far removed from economic activity.

jqpabc123• 15 days ago

Corruption is the most significant threat China has left now that Western capitalism has surrendered.

Tariffs on all things Chinese is pretty much an open admission that the West can't compete.

rirze• 15 days ago

What happens to the money in these cases? I could imagine the official taking solace knowing the money he amassed over the years would eventually go his family.

dylan604• 15 days ago

Until his family receives the bill for the bullet of $325M

lifeisgood99• 15 days ago

Exfiltrated to Vancouver or London where the wife and kids live most likely.

IAmBroom3• 13 days ago

China isn't afraid to assassinate them there. They'll have to live their lives behind bulletproof glass, mistrusting servants and visitors.

I mean, live that way on $325 million. But yeah.

dfee2• 15 days ago

the reason i dislike seeing these articles on HN is that:

1. strong defensive positions float to the top... which could be astroturfing.

2. the merits of the concept aren't discussed; the convo falls back to whataboutism.

maybe it's all fair, but on a site where everyone's ~anonymous, it's hard to take the discussion at face value.

khazhoux2• 15 days ago

Most people here are anonymous, for all the discussions. Either trust that your fellow HNers are legitimate, or… ?

tyre2• 15 days ago

The topic comment at the time I’m writing this is asking fair questions, in my opinion.

- Many people feel the death penalty is wrong in every case.

- Some have a general familiarity with high-level politics of elites and wonder about selective enforcement.

These don’t feel like they’re in bad faith. The merits are difficult to know from the outside, so there will always be speculation based on someone’s lived experience and perceptions. Better to have those aired with a chance to respond, in my opinion.

Especially for China, since it is a global power that operates differently from others. In my own country (United States), for example, we have brazenly open corruption with no consequences.

dfee2• 15 days ago

first, look beyond the top comment.

then, re-read my comment:

the merits of the concept aren't discussed; the convo falls back to whataboutism.

…juxtaposed to your conclusion:

In my own country (United States), for example, we have brazenly open corruption with no consequences.

fwiw, i too feel that the death penalty is wrong. but, that's answering an off topic survey question.

i should also note that you've gotten pushback on your comment above declaring that "Xi has shown repeatedly that he’s serious about corruption". my issue is that there's a narrative that forms based on up/downvotes and thus these political threads are gamed. kinda like how my concerns about legitimacy are being downvoted – that's to be expected.

engineer_22• 15 days ago

We should do this in USA

RIMR• 15 days ago

You'd have to industrialize the capital punishment system to handle the demand.

groby_b• 15 days ago

Good for China.

Society cannot work with too many corrupt civil servants. Yes, "autocrats", "civil liberties", and yet - the guy slurped up $325M to put his finger on the scale, not to change the model of governance.

I wish we in the west took corruption more seriously, but I suppose we're more interested in cage fights on the lawn these days.

carabiner3• 15 days ago

The US is very good if you're very rich. It's bad for everyone else. China appears to be somewhat bad or critical of the superrich, which is why they want to come to the US, but good if you're middle class or poor.

drzhouq• 15 days ago

This is so true

Natfan• 15 days ago

please elaborate on how the US is very good for those who are extremely poor? social safety net?

carabiner3• 15 days ago

You're right. It's only good for the superrich.

Danox• 15 days ago

The antifreeze toothpaste people didn’t get away with it, nor did the 3000 pigs in the river people, and nor did that one group of executives who were in charge of a fertilizer/chemical plant that was one of the largest industrial catastrophes in the world let alone China.

If you get caught in China, Vietnam, or Singapore the penalties for white collar criminals is zero tolerance. You can’t buy your way out if you do something so spectacular that you cause the government to lose face.

You might as well go jump off a building or a bridge cause you’re done for.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/china-executes-ex...

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/uvm7oy/i...

b112• 15 days ago

You're only hearing about the ones caught and punished. You have no proof of "Zero tolerance", or of what percentage of people are caught.

malfist2• 15 days ago

"Zero tolerance" and "we catch every criminal" are two unrelated ideas.

maxglute8• 15 days ago

CCDI has disciplined like 7m+ officials by now, flies and tigers (low and high), _you_ only hear about the juiciest tigers. 100+ provincial/ministerial officials gets investigated per year. It's a wide anti corruption program, lazy but easy back of envelop calc, there's ~100m CCP members, need to be CCP to be in politics and business, so 7/100 ~7% of those classes including top level, which feels like reasonable amount given historic corruption rates. Anecdotally, petty level corruption essentially gone, corrupt/graft industrial complex (banquets/gifts etc it was entire service sector withing broader luxury) went out of business 10 years ago. Not saying corruption gone - it's evolved to your normal financial vehicle engineering like in west.

pibaker3• 15 days ago

You can’t buy your way out if you do something

Not with money.

echelon• 15 days ago

It's also not like the West doesn't impose extremely harsh punishments on the top financial crimes. You can go away for life if you steal enough money.

KennyBlanken• 15 days ago

Is there any evidence any of the people convicted were actually executed or imprisoned?

If any of those people were politically connected, they probably just got a new identity and shoved off to somewhere else in the country.

pibaker3• 15 days ago

If any of those people were politically connected

Connection works both ways. You can be your superior's lapdog on Monday and jailed for being so cordial that he thinks you are trying to take over his position — I mean, taking bribes — by Wednesday.

Given how this man stayed out of trouble for 30 straight years before finally being apprehended, I feel this could be exactly what happened. He probably had some political leverage to keep the prosecutors looking the other way. And the moment he lost his leverage — maybe his superiors changed their minds about him, maybe he stepped on the toes of someone, who knows — they went after him.

jibal5• 15 days ago

If any of those people were politically connected, they probably just got a new identity and shoved off to somewhere else in the country.

It's great that you provided evidence of that ... no hypocrite you.

DANmode• 15 days ago

If you get charged

FTFY

hintymad• 15 days ago

penalties for white collar criminals is zero tolerance

I think this is more about punishing political grafting than white-collar crime.

RajT882• 15 days ago

The smart ones quit while they are ahead and procure citizenship somewhere else (like Canada).

mempko2• 15 days ago

I'm pretty sure the smartest ones just don't do crime.

simmerup• 15 days ago

Only if you get caught and someone in power doesn’t like you

warumdarum3• 15 days ago

? Everyone in the party is incolved in similar crimes. The only thing they are guilty off in addition is a lack of loyalty to emperor xi. Incompetence and criminal corruption, that you can edit out of history, but intrigue is unforgivable.

ClumsyPilot15• 15 days ago

Are you sure? Do you have an example of substantial disaster or scandal that resulted in loss of life and loss of face for China, but perpetuators got away?

For UK I have: Grenfell tower scandal (over 100 dead, no one in prison), infected blood scandal (thousands dead, no one in prison), postmaster scandal (thousands falsely imprisoned , no perpetrator in prison), etc.

threatofrain• 15 days ago

You're assuming that this guy was actually being prosecuted for crimes or that this guy lacked loyalty to Xi Jinping. A tremendous number of top generals and leadership has been wiped out in a short time and not necessarily refilled, and it's not because China has a huge disloyalty problem.

dnautics4• 15 days ago

nor did the 3000 pigs in the river people, and nor did that one group of executives who were in charge of a fertilizer/chemical plant

What about the bridge falling down people, or the overpromised scam apartment people, or the tunnel that flooded people, or the police officers that blocked view of the flowers left for the folks who died in the tunnel that flooded people, or the opened the dam to flood the farmers during the rainy season people, or the fake drains people, or the fake fire hydrants people, or the lead paint in the kids school food people, or the covered up the lead paint in the kids school food doctors, or the barricaded an apartment that was burning during covid people, or the apartments with styrofoam instead of concrete that collapsed in venezuela earthquake people...?

throwawalien• 15 days ago

I haven't heard of many of these but the ones I have were state actors covering up things the state itself did or enabled. that's a different category from private executives getting punished when they embarrass Beijing.

epolanski• 15 days ago

While I am all for holding especially c corp and politicians accountable, similar sentences are a tragedy for me because there is no legal system I would trust, and I don't believe in death sentences as a crime punishment.

Aunche3• 15 days ago

If you get caught in China, Vietnam, or Singapore the penalties for white collar criminals is zero tolerance.

LOL. Bribery is basically required in China for anyone with a medium sized business. Otherwise, you'll be indefinitely blocked by a bureaucrat who has no incentive to help you. Departments in municipal governments are often underfunded and bribery makes up for a significant portion of their effective payroll.

ClumsyPilot15• 15 days ago

Facilitation payment are usually considered the less egregious kinds of bribery, some may be considered acceptable in a culture, and there can be a whole etiquette to it.

In some countries, doctors or surgeons are severely underpaid and it would be customary for a well off citizen to bring them a gift or a cash summ before an important surgery.

That’s quite different from Kickbacks (rampant in UK leaseholds by the way), etc.

reinitctxoffset4• 15 days ago

In the 90s and 00s when I was a kid, being a crook had real consequences here too. Not the death penalty per second, but the die in prison penalty left and right.

When John Meriweather and the rest of LTCM nearly blew up the market they didn't get a bailout, and the taxpayer didn't fund the hole in the balance sheet. The New York Fed organized private money and leaned on all their counterparties to get it done, but they didn't backstop it. Meriweather and the Sheik and Scholes and the rest were wiped out, they worked it off for a couple of years for salary and then skunk away in shame (we had shame back then). Took it like men near as I can tell. I admire John Meriweather a great deal in spite of the scandal.

President Clinton was impeached and very nearly removed from office for (ultimately) consenting but untoward involvement with a young woman (they got him on lying about it technically, but the political will was there because the country was furious about the skirt chasing.

Enron. Accounting that went from aggressive to sketchy to fraudulent (most of it would pass with flying colors today). Hard time. Skilling, Fastow I think just got out like five years ago (don't take my word for the date). Ken Lay IIRC died before they locked him up which saved him dying inside.

Madoff, died in prison. Ebbers, I think he died in prison too.

When Microsoft was gearing up to strangle the web in its crib the Justice Department pulled guys off of terrorists and human traffickers to go take a pipe to Gates until he backed off, he was allowed to keep Microsoft intact by letting the web happen, the Feds weren't asking, he decided to not fuck around and find out.

Consequences for serious fucking bad shit for people who are our leaders work. A people gets exactly what it demands from it's leaders and that's exactly what a people deserves.

Right now we're choosing to settle for a lot less, China is demanding more. Which is why we're getting our asses kicked.

mmooss10• 15 days ago

I think your comment is valuable and insightful, but

China is demanding more.

I have yet to see evidence of that beyond propaganda. Naming someone who reportedly gets a harsh sentence is not evidence.

ClumsyPilot15• 15 days ago

we had shame back then

The collapse of our standards has been heartbreaking to see and I am observing that most are simply in denial.

nkmnz5• 15 days ago

You can’t buy your way out if you do something so spectacular that you cause the government to lose face.

You don't have to buy your way out as long as you are the government, i.e. the chairman.

DaedalusII2• 15 days ago

if trump ordered someone to be shot for accepting bribes we would find this idea a lot less appealing

anyone who spent a lot of time in that part of the world will tell you this stuff can basically be made up

the western method to do this is to plant csa material on a person and then publicly announce they've been caught with it. not many people consider that 'possession' can simply be a USB stick found in a tree on your 2 acre lot, or a usb stick that has been planted in your car

your entire family and social network will immediately cut you off and very few consider these things can be fabricated

gamblor9562• 15 days ago

not many people consider that 'possession' can simply be a USB stick found in a tree on your 2 acre lot, or a usb stick that has been planted in your car

That's because that's not how the laws worked in the U.S., nor have the laws ever worked that way. If that was actually how the laws worked, a lot of enemies of each administration would get tarred with this, instead of literally none of them.

Wingman4l7• 15 days ago

What about if the harm is solely limited to people outside of China, because the product was export-only?

bs65• 15 days ago

"If you get caught". Do the math on how many get caught per capita. Its like worrying about a random coconut falling on your head. Fighting corruption in unequal societies is not possible because ambitious people born without wealth and status, and constantly bombarded with signals from birth that wealth and status is a sign of success, will do whatever it takea to get it. The Law doesnt reduce corruption. Its just a story like Religion that allows people to cope with a reality they dont control.

sam345• 15 days ago

Only if the CCP doesn't like you or decides that it doesn't like you because you are more valuable as an enemy. Otherwise it's no big deal because politics in a communist country does not get done without bribes in one form or another. Honest players are not to be found in a communist country. Government is like open source. The more open you are, the less likely there is going to be shenanigans.

ballon_monkey• 15 days ago

"You can’t buy your way out"

Absolutely you can. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire thing is fabricated to just execute political opponents that don't align with Xi.

refurb4• 14 days ago

I’ve lived in 2 out of 3 of those countries and I can assure you people get away with fraud and corruption all the time.

If you’re well connected (or making the right people rich) they are happy to overlook it. But if you bite off too much and they need a head to roll they will find one (usually someone lower level).

I mean look at the number of military leader simply dismissed in China for massive corruption. They get a fat pension and go away quietly and the small guy pays with his life.

Not sure I’d be expounding the greatness of that system.

jiaosdjf• 14 days ago

China is as corrupt or more corrupt as anywhere else. You can absolutely buy your way out, or otherwise wrangle something. Zero tolerance death penalty for this sort of thing is a sign of extreme desperation - the fact that there are any such scandals despite the penalty is telling.

pibaker3• 15 days ago

Anyone who think this demonstrates the CCP's epicbacon commitment to anti corruption needs to ask themselves how did this man take so much bribe over 30 years and is only sentenced now.

Is he dumb? Surely he is smart enough to know he committed a capital crime and yet he kept doing it. Perhaps he only kept doing it because he believed he could somehow get away with it? Perhaps he saw others pull off the same stunt? Or perhaps he had the political capital to keep himself out of trouble and is now facing justice because he rubbed someone higher up the wrong way?

Is the prosecution dumb? 300 million is no small money are they really so incompetent that over the course of 30 years they could not find anything wrong with this guy? Perhaps they had a reason to keep him around? Perhaps he had them in his pocket? Perhaps he had the connection to fuck up anyone who dares investigating him? Perhaps they never meant to care about corruption anyway and only went after him because someone somewhere issued an order and they are just charging him for corruption because the true reason is less convenient?

China has invested a lot in whitewashing its public image these days. Every young left leaning westerner is salivating at the idea of a Chinese century because they somehow convinced themselves that the Chinese has the solution to everything that went wrong in the west. It's sad to see it spreading even to this website.

trencedamp3• 15 days ago

Epicbacon? Is that some new slang or a typo

keane• 15 days ago

generally an allusion to the sophomoric takes of enthusiastic ignorance found on places like Reddit (where The Oatmeal and Cards Against Humanity were popular)

kdamica• 15 days ago

Doesn't hold a candle to the scale of Heshen's crimes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heshen

qnleigh• 15 days ago

he was described as the most corrupt official in Chinese history... Heshen is remembered as one of the richest men in history... His total property was... reputed to be equivalent to the imperial revenue of the Qing government for 12 years.

Damn

dzonga• 15 days ago

does punishing corruption with a death sentence - look excessive ? Yes!

is it prone to abuse by those who yield power - Yes!

however - the alternative - where corruption goes unchecked is even worse!! if you come from a poor country e.g in Africa - you would've experienced the effects of corruption.

American are now experiencing it now - & the country is already worse off. though before corruption in American was used as an incentive mechanism - now it's just pure grift.

so yeah sentencing one or two people to death explicitly is the humane outcome vs sentencing thousands to death implicitly.

trencedamp3• 15 days ago

Death sentence is excessive. But many people here will be comparing it to the USA where the current punishment for corruption is nothing. Literally nothing. You just get away with it in plain sight

We don't need death sentence, we just need, like, any regular sentence

fritzo• 15 days ago

The alternative is 4 years of house arrest, just until the next administration can issue a pardon. There is no sentence between 4 years and capital punishment.

wrqvrwvq• 15 days ago

In your opinion, which specific criminal acts have American executives committed in the last 20 years?

Holmes et co have been charged and incarcerated, SBF is also sitting in prison, other executives at smaller companies have also been prosecuted and faced imprisonment. I think there is a lot of fraud in various industries, but some of it is prosecuted, and some of it is legal enough that there is only a fine to pay. There is some accountability, and as much as i can criticize what corps do, i don't think of them as "legally responsible" for every misuse of their tools. Today it seems that if someone cuts their own leg off with a power saw it is a lawsuit against the tool company.

mandeepj• 15 days ago

Will it happen here to the most corrupt a-hole? I don't think so. He'd chant - they hate me, or i'm part of a witch hunt, or 'i'm politically prosecuted.

riazrizvi• 15 days ago

Fascinating development in Chinese politics.

niemandhier• 15 days ago

There is the concept of sending doubles to stand in for punishment in china. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_zui

dyauspitr• 15 days ago

I wish India did something like this. A crackdown on corruption and enforcement of existing laws would fix 90% of India’s problems. Obviously I don’t think folks should get the death penalty but something harsh like long jail sentences and tearing down of whatever kingdoms they have built.

therobots927• 15 days ago

I wish we did this here in the US. Here it’s the opposite - white collar criminals get “club fed” treatment - good food, comfortable room, tennis courts, etc.

And that’s if they’re ever charged at all, which is rare.

myko• 15 days ago

I'm generally against the death penalty but this kind of malfeasance truly deserves it. Sad to see similar corruption at the top levels of the US.

moniosi• 15 days ago

I mean, many people in many states of the US are clearly fine with the death penalty dispensed for violent criminals. I think that white collar crimes of this nature are way worse than an isolated case of violence since it creates lots of indirect systemic misery & suffering for the people & taxpayers that need those resources (that by the way is also the perfect recipe for violent crimes).

amai• 15 days ago

China doesn't sentence official to death for genocide against Uyghurs

penguin_booze• 15 days ago

Too bad China doesn't have a president fit for pardoning thugs.

jeffrallen• 15 days ago

Ooh, now do USA.

mempko2• 15 days ago

Someone like Trump probably couldn't even be a CCP party member. I've heard it's a relatively meritocratic organization, at least compared to pur political system. Though maybe someone from China can correct me.

greatgib• 15 days ago

I would like such justice to be applied to a few European and French officials... Democracy could be a lot different if corruption and selling his votes was not a career goal for our officials.

twothreeone• 15 days ago

Does Xi Jinping (or any of his Politburo colleagues) publish their income and/or tax records? Otherwise, this "we are so anti-corruption" stance is basically just political theater as the Courts themselves are CCP-bound.

torginus• 15 days ago

How does one steal $300m? If someone is supposed to be on a clerk's salary, even if generous, I would think their explicable net worth should not go beyond a couple million. Being a hundred times richer than that means you have to keep a low profile, in which case being that rich isn't worth the risk.

green_wheel• 15 days ago

We need more of that here

jasonjei• 15 days ago

purpleidea• 15 days ago

Serious countries don't still use the death penalty. It's barbaric. Even if the crimes are barbaric.

fsuts2• 15 days ago

Hopefully China will advance to a stage where they ban the death penalty like in many other countries.

ebbi3• 15 days ago

advance

Like those 'advanced' countries that don't have death penalties but are silent - or arming/funding - a genocide?

I guess some deaths are ok.

fsuts2• 15 days ago

Separate issues, don’t mix them for your own personal priorities.

senderista• 15 days ago

Autocracies tolerate corruption because if everyone is corrupt, anyone can be "legitimately" prosecuted for corruption. (At least I think that's how it works in Russia, but I don't know much about China.)

ColdStream2• 15 days ago

That makes sense. Give those under the leader enough rope to hang themselves but only when needed.

TacticalCoder• 15 days ago

A state should never have the power to kill people --even though I think some just deserve death (like those raping then killing a child)-- because the state one day shall abuse that power to get rid of those who they don't like.

But I gotta say something: if the EU or the US were to kill politicians taking in bribes, there wouldn't be many politicians left.

bigglywiggler• 15 days ago

So many comments here by western people clinging to the only thing that they have left. The idea that somewhere in the world there is 'injustice' and a 'lack of freedom' and 'dictatorship' makes their absolute dystopian hellscape seem somewhat barely tolerable in their addled minds because they can at least imagine that elsewhere there is some big bad dictator and therefore they are comparatively free. No matter that they are poor and getting poorer or that their governments and companies are all sold out to billionaires and wrecked by private equity. No matter that their freedom begins and ends at consumerism and the vague idea that the police won't arrest them for posting something online. Apparently freedom to have a strong government that actually funds things for the public and doesn't suck billionaire cocks is not as important as having the opportunity to get into debt and spaff shite on the internet. If these people actually went to China and saw it with their own eyes then they would realise that they have been lied to. It's extremely sad to see.

funkychicken• 15 days ago

Pretty sure most rational western people (on here at least) are the first to acknowledge all the bad things going on in their countries… and most of the comments I’ve read in this thread seem rather supportive of corruption crackdowns? Idk what prompted this rant tbh.

yanhangyhy• 15 days ago

While Xi Jinping is heavily criticized in private within China, he truly attaches great importance to punishing corruption. The fundamental reason is that as China underwent reform and opening up, it abandoned the Maoist emphasis on equality for the people. As a result, interest groups have continuously expanded and begun to severely impact economic development. In the past, it was still possible to encourage officials to serve the people through rationality and grand socialist ideals. Now, with the fading of the former, severe punishment must be used to correct the course.

Additionally, there are two noteworthy aspects regarding the unique characteristics of Chinese law:

(1) The characteristic of "politics over law" in China has gained increasing approval online. Previously, many people admired and envied Western judicial independence, but more and more people are realizing the drawbacks of this system.

(2) China has always been very cautious regarding the execution of the death penalty. Even during the feudal dynasties, official executions remained rare and typically required imperial review. In essence, China still operates under a model of governance by Confucian elites.

nameconflicts• 15 days ago

赵瑞龙：哪来那么多腐败分子啊，说白了不就是你们内斗吗？

RandyOrion• 15 days ago

Other details for the official (Yang Youlin) in this news.

---

Whistleblower Yang Hai already reported Yang Youlin for his economic misconduct in July 2008. The whistleblower was detained because of the report at Nov 21st, 2008.

---

People's comment on this matter around March, 2009:

哇塞！终于有人敢动杨友林啦，杨海好样的。杨友林此人早该除无奈碍于他的势力。除掉杨友林大快人心。Wow! Finally, someone dares to take action against Yang Youlin. Good job, Yang Hai. That guy should have been dealt with long ago, but we were stuck with his influence. Getting rid of him is incredibly satisfying.

不杀此贪官，难平民愤。If you don't execute this corrupt official, you won't appease the public's anger.

江宁有一个传说，谁也动不了杨永林！There's a legend in Jiangning: nobody can touch Yang Youlin!

他的保护伞是谁？Who is protecting him?

希望引起中央的重视！I hope this gets the attention of the central government!

现在社会怎么啦？好多天了根本没人关注这件事？是上层没有看到？还是视而不见？还是怕牵连自己？What's going on with society lately? It's been days and no one is paying attention to this! Did the higher-ups miss it? Are they turning a blind eye? Or are they just afraid of getting dragged into it?

---

Since the report, there were several pieces of news about "the investigation about Yang Youlin is ongoing", but no real progress until 2023.

Handsome2734• 15 days ago

Why is this on Hacker News? I thought the site is for tech posts, as named 'Hacker'

silexia• 15 days ago

Keep in mind, the official may have done nothing wrong but not kissed the wrong Communist behind so he got framed.

crowd51• 15 days ago

China being a communist country, I'm sure they want to show the people the harsh consequences for corruption.

In North Korea, you get a death sentence for even something a lot smaller.

trolleski• 15 days ago

In the West, $325M in bribes is called Monday!

mikewarot• 14 days ago

I feel like crimes over a certain threshold should include accessories in the punishment, like the Death Penalty here in Indiana does.

It certainly helps motivate them to testify in court.

Strong minority opinion: If someone steals more than the average total lifetime earnings of 10 people, I think the death penalty should apply. That's about 25 million USD

tempodox• 14 days ago

I wonder how often Trump would have to die for his acts of high treason and making the USG lose face over and over again.

fuckinpuppers• 11 days ago

In the US that’s republican representative behavior! With a pardon to boot

China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes

Related Stories