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

bbc.com

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

#181

Post by anepoitilivam »

TrackerFF wrote: post #8

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 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..

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

#182

Post by NikolaNovak »

jst1fthsdys wrote: post #164
haunter wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ah yes, race essentialism. I'd say I'm surprised to see this on HN, but I'm not.

I don't agree with OP, and I'm willing to hear why you're correct in that assessment, but can you elaborate?

To be explicit about each other's assumptions, I think Race (however ill-defined or specific construct as it may or may not be), is not the same thing as Country, Political System, Culture, Religion, etc.

Understanding racists these days mostly use euphemisms and codewords, and it's a devil's work sometimes to figure it out, in the "Principle of Charity" sense, I read that post as being a critique of China's political and cultural systems in general, and their sport-league / development in particular, leading to specific societal outcomes. I could be extremely naive though but I'm willing to learn if you may provide more backing/thought for that?

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

#184

Post by jandrese »

nonethewiser wrote: post #94
mushufasa wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 re…

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

Or in authoritarian regimes it often means "stole from the party". As long as you only steal from the poor and give the proper bribes up the chain you are in no danger in most corrupt societies. Except possibly in the rare occasion where your corruption causes a disaster that embarrasses the people above you in the hierarchy.

Far too often when you see stories about how someone was persecuted for corruption it boils down to "he stole from rich people".

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

#185

Post by vkou »

guywithahat wrote: post #179
vkou wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In an authoritarian government basic liberties we take for granted in the West are considered corruption Could you list some of those basic liberties? Are they the sort of liberties whose exercise involves taking half a billion in bribes? --- Generally, basic liberties like showing up to a protest aren't considered corruption, they get called terrorism, or somesuch. A Texas judge just sentenced a dozen people to 30…

For anyone else curious as to what OP is talking about, I had to look this up: > The protest was a late-night/noise demonstration (involving fireworks) against immigration detention policies. It turned violent when a shooting injured a police officer. Prosecutors described it as an "act of terrorism" linked to an alleged antifa cell; defendants and supporters denied organized antifa ties and framed it as protected pr…

Only one person opened fire. He got 100 years. (I agree that he shouldn't have gotten a slap on the wrist for what he did, but I'll happily point out that killers serve less, if at all.)

The rest got 70. None of them had guns.

The guy who got 30 years wasn't even at the protest.

---

There is no universe where this is not completely batshit insane, but it's interesting to see you use the exact same logic[1] the CCP has in its crackdowns and pogroms to justify it.

The reason the sentences were so high, by the way, was because the judge took dozens of minor offenses and added the sentences for each. It's the equivalent of sentencing someone who stole a 12-pack for 12 counts of theft, or someone tagging 'FUCK ICE' for 8 counts[1] of destruction of federal property.

For some reason, the current regime does not hold its footsoldiers and other useful idiots to the same standard.

---

[1] Someone in a protest/movement/group did something bad, brand them all terrorists, and make sure that everyone's going to a 're-education' camp for what will remain of their lives.

[2] One for each letter, and another one for the space.

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

#186

Post by KennyBlanken »

Danox wrote: post #115

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…

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.

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

#187

Post by maerF0x0 »

malfist wrote: post #122
b112 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

One of the problems with absolute authoritarian regimes is that the friends of those in power are defined as "not criminals", and vice versa for enemies. It's part of the reason I'm against presidential pardon. (Except for when it's retrospective on laws that have changed, maybe?)

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

#188

Post by anepoitilivam »

luqtas wrote: post #49
ozgrakkurt wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The funny thing you really believe that, american m..n

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

#189

Post by moniosi »

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).

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

#190

Post by pessimizer »

trhway wrote: post #117
nonethewiser wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

As Stalin demonstrated even when you're totally loyal, you're still frequently made victim of the terror. The point of totalitarian regime is that nobody should feel safe, nobody should have an agency. In particular the people shouldn't be able to obtain safety themselves even by the way of being totally loyal. I have no doubt that that guy was corrupt like any other official there. Yet, he isn't punished for the cor…

These are just weird fantasies that you're writing out, with absolutely no reference to any events that have happened in China. You seem to just be writing fiction, and assigning it to the Chinese. The Chinese are actually people, though, they're real. If you want to accuse them of unremitting evil, you should be able to talk about something they did in detail.

That does not mean that you should google "China bad" and paste a bunch of random urls in a reply, though.

What Cold War propaganda did to Western brains is tragic.

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