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

bbc.com

61–70 of 523 posts

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

#61

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

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.

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

#62
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.

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".

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

#63
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.

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

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

#64
post #9
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.

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.

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.

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

#65

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

> 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.?

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

#66
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.

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

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

To unfuck a system like that you have to have a clean reset of sorts. It will feel unjust because past criminals will all go free, but you have to prioritize future stability. You offer amnesty for past crimes in exchange for absolute transparency and massive structure reforms moving forward. Or, you do what the democratic party in the US has been afraid to do: Rip the bandaid off, accusations of weaponization of the…

[dead]

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

#68

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…

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 ?

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

#69

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…

> 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.

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

#70

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?

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.
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