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

bbc.com

41–50 of 523 posts

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

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

One does not simply move money out of China

The options increase when you’re already breaking the law.

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

#42

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?

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

>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.

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

#43

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?

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...

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

#44

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?

>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.

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

#45

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

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.

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

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yeah but that’s bad right

The Achilles heel of all whataboutism is assuming someone can't consistently criticize the new thing in addition to the original thing.

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

#47
post #5

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.

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

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

#48
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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 necessari…

How else do you propose a system that is fucked like that ever gets unfucked?

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

#49

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?

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…

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

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

#50

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?

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…

> 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.

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