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

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

#101

Post by nonethewiser » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #85

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?

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.

Yes. The Chinese people trade freedom for good governance.

The problem is, if they dont like their governance they cant trade it back for their freedom.

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

#102

Post by dfee » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:32 PM UTC

tyre wrote: post #86

dfee wrote: post #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.

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 experi…

first, look beyond the top comment.

then, re-read my comment:

> the merits of the concept aren't discussed; the convo falls back to whataboutism.

…juxtaposed to your conclusion:

> In my own country (United States), for example, we have brazenly open corruption with no consequences.

fwiw, i too feel that the death penalty is wrong. but, that's answering an off topic survey question.

i should also note that you've gotten pushback on your comment above declaring that "Xi has shown repeatedly that he’s serious about corruption". my issue is that there's a narrative that forms based on up/downvotes and thus these political threads are gamed. kinda like how my concerns about legitimacy are being downvoted – that's to be expected.

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

#103

Post by jmyeet » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:33 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?

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 really anything else. Instead there's evidence that the likes of Jack Ma, a billionaire, are brought to heel, China has cracked down on so-called yin-yang contracts, sentenced to death people who messed with the baby formula supply chain and so on.

People really should reflect on why they're so willing to seek confirmation bias and why they have that bias at all.

Here's a tip: if you take anything China says or does at face value you will be more correct than 95% of the China "experts" that have entrenched themselves in the media and Western policy circles.

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

#104

Post by wat10000 » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:33 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?

Even if it's politically motivated, it's still punishment for a real and serious crime. Compare to prosecuting someone for touching a pool that the president happens to really care about for no good reason.

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

#105

Post by nonethewiser » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:34 PM UTC

lordgilman wrote: post #77

Barrin92 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Would the inner circle members of CCP leadership realistically face the same prosecution and sentencing no need to speculate, it's already happened. Zhou Yongkang who was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (the highest governing body in Chinese politics) was prosecuted, and up until that point people at the top were considered relatively untouchable. Xi also axed the last to vice chairmen of the central mi…

The Zhou Yongkang incident happened over a decade ago, it happened in roughly the first year of Xi Jinping's tenure, Zhou Yongkang was a supporter of the also-purged Bo Xilai, and while he was still in power he ran the department responsible for internal security. I don't doubt the guy was corrupt but this is exactly the sort of target you go after if you want to maintain your own grip on power.

Isnt that just the winning end of corruption?

Are we really heralding purging political opponents as anti corruption? Imagine if Trump won and put Harris in jail.

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

#106

Post by lyu07282 » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

dirck-norman wrote: post #84

lyu07282 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It's a complex system of layers of representatives being elected on the local level, various institutions and levels of governance that you know literally nothing about and yet has been incredibly successful at uplifting it's people. In the simple mind of the western chauvinist this rich five thousand year old culture and complex society with good and bad, gets flattened into antagonistic slogans like "single party autocracy".

You don't understand how calling you a victim of propaganda is me being charitable, I could've also called you a typical western ignorant sinophobe.

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

#107

Post by AnimalMuppet » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

fellowniusmonk wrote: post #48

grvbck wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that perspective to some degree, but imagine a hypothetical country with say, two parties in power, where prosecutors only crack down on white collar criminals if they are supporters of one party and not the other. We would call that system corrupt, and probably not celebrate that at least some of the criminals face justice. Also, from a practical standpoint, charging some and not others is not necessari…

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

You start with one party - doesn't matter which - getting in power, and then prosecuting corruption on both sides, not just on the other side.

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

#108

Post by expedition32 » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:35 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?

Corruption endangers the CCP rule and weakens China why would they not self purge?

Everyone in China knows how dynasties end.

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

#109

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #95

verdverm wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is prosecuting the Epstein Pedos. Trump is protecting his friends Corruption is everywhere and varies in degree. The US likes to claim a mantle of superiority when it seems quite the opposite. We have a bully/greatest conman ever in the white house

> Europe is prosecuting the Epstein Pedos. Are they? Price Andrew got a name change, but hasn’t had any real penalty to date. He had the Queen protecting him. Mandelson probably will end up in court but it won’t be for anything related to child abuse.

> Price Andrew got a name change, but hasn’t had any real penalty to date.

For the British Royals, I suspect becoming persona non grata is more impactful than a jail sentence.

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

#110

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jul 07, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

nonethewiser wrote: post #101

ActorNightly wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes. The Chinese people trade freedom for good governance. The problem is, if they dont like their governance they cant trade it back for their freedom.

Sure they can. That's how they got this government.