Shanghaiist: Shanghai official sentenced to death for accepting US$5 million in bribes

Pirx

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:22:20 +0800

In all fairness, I think it is important to look closer. Party officials go through years of hardship and misery until they get bit by bit promoted to positions, where they can wield some serious influence and make things happen. That is a bit like 'pay-back-time'. All that happens with some kind of tacit nod of approval. In China there is always a balance of terror. You can't do everything right, at some points you ought to bend the rules, even with best of all intentions [if it was possible to do everything right, be assured, the rules would be changed]. In the eyes of the bureaucracy, civil or party, any individual will always be guilty of something. they just need to look closely. It is part of the political gameplan, if this is ever being used against the individual or not depends on political convenience. Laws are being applied selectively, not universally and equally. If you want to tackle corruption, introduce an independent judiciary including a fully independent constitutional court as a first step. As long as the judiciary can be used by people or institutions at will, as long as everyone will always be guilty of something, corruption will not go away.

booggerg

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:47:56 +0800

Why do officials in China not learn? You would think pppl would feel pretty it's pretty risky to take this much bribe?

Pirx

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:31:59 +0800

This is the fall-out from the Chen-case. There is much, much, much more where this one came from. The trouble is, that ever since the first China anti-corruption campaign hundreds of years ago, they have only served political cleanups and were never meant or suitable to really uproot the problem. If one ever wanted to really address this endemic, nasty problem, then entire departments, provincial governments would need to be replaced top-to-bottom by competent people, who were groomed outside the current bureaucracy and outside the current party organization.

Buck Rogerz

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:20:36 +0800

This is probably motivated by someone who is jealous of his big bucks. If Mr. Yin is actually guilty of anything, he's guilty of not sharing enough of his bribes with the right people. Grease the right palms and your problems disappear! There's no such thing as justice in China -- just politics.

waixingren

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:00:16 +0800

Any bets on how long the CCP knew about all of this before they decided to take him down?

disway

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:05:59 +0800

In a country that bribery is like getting breakfast in the morning, such punishment (though it is capital) won't make a dent on all the issues as a whole. However it is encouraging.

wowwowwow

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:23:24 +0800

shopgirl, i wrote you off as just a fashionista ditz, but obviously you have some will to power issues. i hope you finish your last year at school paying more attention to the liberal part of your liberal arts education. *sigh* i'm sure you'll do fine for yourself kissing ass to get your armani internship, so don't mind those of us that care about justice. we mean nothing to mother china.

shopgirl

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:34:00 +0800

I think it's good, that bastard should have learned from the Cheng Liang Yu's incident. Now this will scare others off (hopefully)