China sentences official to death for taking $325M in bribes • Hacker News Board

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

#191

Post by edot » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:51 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #184

nonethewiser wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This is true in any power structure ever. Kings, mafia, pick-your-dictatorship, many democracies. Hurt or steal from the poor, not other rich or elite, and always make sure to kick some up to the big guys.

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

#192

Post by maerF0x0 » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:51 PM UTC

tyre wrote: post #78

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?

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 foo…

> 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.

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

#193

Post by pibaker » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

KennyBlanken wrote: post #186

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.

> 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.

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

#194

Post by trhway » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

pessimizer wrote: post #190

trhway wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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" an…

>What Cold War propaganda did to Western brains is tragic.

Some weird fantasies you have.

I grew up in USSR. So very well familiar with inner workings of such regimes.

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

#195

Post by observationist » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

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.

The thing they have zero tolerance for is the embarrassment, not the corruption, pollution, crime, or other abuse. You can do whatever you can get away with so long as you don't cause embarrassment or shame.

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

#196

Post by libertine » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

nekusar wrote: post #147

paytonjjones wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may well be true, but that hardly applies to the current case of taking $325M in bribes

US folks will contort to the extremes about any discussion of gross illegal conduct in China. This guy took $325M in bribes, embezzlement, abuse of power, and money laundering. And he did this as a public servant for over 30 years. I say good on China for attacking such brazen corruption so directly. Violating the public trust should be extremely harsh.

Well it isn't much contortionism when you look at the big picture you'll find that corruption is an institution in some countries.

For example, you're making an effort to try legitimize the regime by framing a factual gross illegal conduct as a overarching policy.

But is it like that when you observe the whole structure?

How wealthy are the ruling elites? Or for example, how has IP theft policy changed?

Or we can reframe this: how do we tell the difference between a genuine tackle on corruption, from a weed out of the system with a public display?

You have plenty of cases in other corrupt regimes when they want to seize assets from someone the regime wants to push away: it's corruption.

Which again, they could be very well be corrupt, but they are corrupt because they're part of the regime.

You'll probably say: "Oh but the USS!!!" Yes, there's some level of systemic corruption there, just not an institution - yet!

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

#197

Post by maxglute » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

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?

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.

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

#198

Post by glenstein » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:52 PM UTC

mittensc wrote: post #60

glenstein wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's not whataboutism if you point out question was naive. (answer is the same everywhere and has always been the same) Inner circle leadership won't be prosecuted anywhere as long as their group holds some power. So, then, question is, how can this be improved?, can it be improved?

I don't understand why you think your question in reply to theirs revealed that theirs was naive.

If anything, I think it actually reduces the quality of discussion because it tries to say that dynamics in China are equivalent to the next you would find in pretty much any country which is is vague and lazy as analysis goes, and goes against the HN recommendation that conversations get more precise over time.

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

#199

Post by 1234letshaveatw » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:54 PM UTC

jmyeet wrote: post #103

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?

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 real…

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?

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

#200

Post by pessimizer » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 7:55 PM UTC

anepoitilivam wrote: post #181

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..

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.