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China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
81–90 of 523 posts
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#82the 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.
Most people here are anonymous, for all the discussions. Either trust that your fellow HNers are legitimate, or… ?
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#83I 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.
This is load bearing guanxi
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#84I 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, 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-416…
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.
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#85I 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?
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.
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#86the 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.
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.
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#87[flagged]
If we actually punished corrupt officials and we had some kind of truth serum that forced people to admit yes/no as to whether they are corrupt, I would not be surprised if the majority of officials in the federal government would be culled. Its practically a breeding ground for corruption.
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 c…
> I am not convinced. "You can no longer hold office" is a permanent punishment. Why should that not be allowed? Let's say that some new evidence comes out that exonerates the person. You can indeed reverse the "no longer hold office" punishment. You can't bring someone back from the dead.
Le sigh. Fine, the punishment was you forfeit your chickens to your neighbor. Should those chickens be inedible by the new legal owner? What if they have to return them later if new evidence comes to light?
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#89I 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?
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.
Re: China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes
#90I 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...
Russia is even tougher on corrupt oligarchs