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A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

economist.com

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Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#11

Post by sydthrowaway »

phyrex wrote: post #4
seibelj wrote: post #3

This is so incredibly obvious it’s amazing that anyone would think otherwise. Say what you want about western government but I’d much rather anger the US government as a US citizen than anger the Chinese government as a Chinese citizen. In China I’d be extremely concerned about my family arrested, arbitrary trials, forced medication with debilitating drugs, bullet in my head, etc. In America we may let the Sacklers b…

Tell that to Snowden and the other whistle blowers

You will never have a Chinese Snowden. The loyalty to the regime is too high.

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#12

Post by stanislavb »

yuy910616 wrote: post #7
yuy910616 wrote: post #2

It sounds like an incredible book. I will certainly check it out. It fits well with my experience of China well - a place where Guanxi (關係）trumps all else. People fear it, hate it, but also aspire it. It's also interesting that how unlikely this book is. I've been in the West for more than 20 years, but I don't plan on speaking ill of China at all. Kudos to the author. Another book that I really enjoy that seem to be…

I also want to add the book is currently has 20 ratings on Amazon and 4.9 stars - I'm curious if a large flood of of negative reviews quickly get posted haha, since it is now on both the Economist and Hackernews, which I think China closely monitors.

I won’t be surprised at all to see a number of suspicious negative reviews.

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#13

Post by [deleted] »

phyrex wrote: post #4
seibelj wrote: post #3

This is so incredibly obvious it’s amazing that anyone would think otherwise. Say what you want about western government but I’d much rather anger the US government as a US citizen than anger the Chinese government as a Chinese citizen. In China I’d be extremely concerned about my family arrested, arbitrary trials, forced medication with debilitating drugs, bullet in my head, etc. In America we may let the Sacklers b…

Tell that to Snowden and the other whistle blowers

[deleted]

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#16

Post by Hnrobert42 »

yuy910616 wrote: post #2

It sounds like an incredible book. I will certainly check it out. It fits well with my experience of China well - a place where Guanxi (關係）trumps all else. People fear it, hate it, but also aspire it. It's also interesting that how unlikely this book is. I've been in the West for more than 20 years, but I don't plan on speaking ill of China at all. Kudos to the author. Another book that I really enjoy that seem to be…

I am not sure the comparison to Confessions of an Economic Hitman are positive. To me, that book was such unsubstantiated garbage that I left it in the airport where I bought it. It didn’t even make it to the plane.

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#17

Post by systemvoltage »

sydthrowaway wrote: post #11
phyrex wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell that to Snowden and the other whistle blowers

You will never have a Chinese Snowden. The loyalty to the regime is too high.

Why do you think loyalty is too high? I would have guessed just from the sheer number of people working in gov, there are probably dozens of resentful people of not hundreds/thousands.

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#18

Post by unityByFreedom »

yuy910616 wrote: post #2

It sounds like an incredible book. I will certainly check it out. It fits well with my experience of China well - a place where Guanxi (關係）trumps all else. People fear it, hate it, but also aspire it. It's also interesting that how unlikely this book is. I've been in the West for more than 20 years, but I don't plan on speaking ill of China at all. Kudos to the author. Another book that I really enjoy that seem to be…

> It's also interesting that how unlikely this book is.

"No Wall Too High" by Xu Hongci is another unlikely excellent story of a man escaping from communist China. He's imprisoned multiple times and ends up escaping to eventually marry a woman from Mongolia. Then in the Deng era he settles again in Shanghai and publishes his story in Chinese. Later this manuscript was discovered via his surviving wife, translated to English and published in 2017.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HMNETEA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#19

Post by systemvoltage »

phyrex wrote: post #4
seibelj wrote: post #3

This is so incredibly obvious it’s amazing that anyone would think otherwise. Say what you want about western government but I’d much rather anger the US government as a US citizen than anger the Chinese government as a Chinese citizen. In China I’d be extremely concerned about my family arrested, arbitrary trials, forced medication with debilitating drugs, bullet in my head, etc. In America we may let the Sacklers b…

Tell that to Snowden and the other whistle blowers

The amount of anti-US things I can say as a US citizen is astounding. News and media has pretty much no fear of criticizing the US gov.

Re: A new book looks behind Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign

#20

Post by hildaman »

I read this book, it was truly jaw dropping to see the "Guanxi" system at work.

From what I could tell, there is a whole system of unwritten rules about how different political factions could collect their "percentage", how these factions compete with each other and eliminate each other and so on.

In a way, it is efficient because everyone who matters (i.e. princelings who control the CCP) has an incentive to "play the game". It is efficient because there are no nasty courts to slow you down, you don't have to deal with the lowest bidder nonsense - it all comes down to connections. The party credibility and the need hold power serves as a very powerful check on the system to prevent the system from becoming too blatantly corrupt and keeps the system going.

But if you aren't someone who matters - i.e. a princeling, you will be forever on the outside looking in.

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