Minxin Pei, Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, argues that the downfall of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai has busted the notion that the Chinese Communist Party's rule is based on meritocracy. He says the government is "riddled with clever apparatchiks like Bo who have acquired their positions through cheating, corruption, patronage, and manipulation". more ›

"There are indeed many problems going on at the National Development and Reform Commission. I live just opposite their building and can see what's going on very clearly. On our road, you'll find many gift shops. All these people coming from out-of-town enter the building with big and small bags, and later leave empty-handed. At the end of the day, NDRC officials leave the building with big and small bags. They can't use all the stuff, so they sell them back to the gift shops, who in turn resell them to others who have come to Beijing on a mission. So that's what's happened to our street." more ›

Blind human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has managed to escape from house arrest while his guards were not watching, and appeared immediately afterwards on Youtube, delivering a message to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, with the following three demands: more ›

This week, the Chinese Supreme People's Court overturned the death sentence of 31-year-old Wu Ying, who was convicted of financial fraud in 2007. Wu, who had amassed a fortune of 3.6 billion RMB (US $567 million) by the time she was 25, allegedly cheated investors the Madoff-esque sum of nearly $60.2 million between the span of 2005-2007, and was sentenced to death in late 2009. more ›

British businessman Neil Heywood may have been poisoned after threatening to expose the business dealings of Gu Kailai, wife of former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, according to a new Reuters exclusive which cites two unnamed sources with knowledge of the police investigation. Chris Buckley with the salacious details: more ›

Jiang Weiping (姜维平), a journalist who was jailed for investigating Bo's corruption, told Voice of America that Gu Kailai, Bo Xilai's wife, has Hong Kong ID and Singapore greencard. more ›

Land rights lawyer Ni Yulan (倪玉兰), who has now been permanently disabled due to police torture, has been sentenced to jail by a court in Beijing along with her husband Dong Jiqin (董继勤). more ›

For those of you looking to get yourself (or your boss) splashed across Chinese media, look no further than this article by David Barboza of the New York Times whose already done the legwork for you and found out all the rates: more ›

Some officials spend 70% of their time on banquets, and if they don't have any banquet, they still want a drink, says a professor of Beijing Normal University. more ›

A new video from Ming En Media (translated by Ministry of Tofu) visualizes the ins and outs of Chinese government spending, and brings up curious facts like how the number of elementary schools in rural China dropped almost by half in the past decade, despite education spending increasing by 721 percent since the year 2000. Wall Streeters, take note: better watch out, because you've got some serious competition for the title of World's Most Egregiously Fraudulent Assholes. more ›

"Chairman [Mao] was very strict with his descendants, and he himself was also very incorruptible. Look at our family, among all those descendants of Chairman, can you find anyone who is an official or does business? You can find none! Why? Because Chairman had set a good example." more ›

"All the leaders and cadres of our party have been teaching children to love their motherland. But why do they send all their relatives abroad? They themselves have failed to set an example. Have they transferred their assets as well? Where does the money come from? They can enjoy special medicare for cadres in China, but what benefits do they enjoy abroad? Perhaps this means there are illegal sources of income involved?" more ›

"I believe after this, no one will dare to invite me to their yacht. And no one will invite me to their private jets." Boo fucking hoo, you say. But those were the exact words of Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to legislators earlier today. More of what Tsang said after the jump... more ›

Government officials are more tolerant than members of the public when it comes to the "naked officials" phenomena, according to a new report, "Rule of Law Blueprint 2012", by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences  (CASS). The term "naked officials" refers to civil servants whose spouses and children have all migrated abroad. more ›

Su Li (苏力), the party secretary of Wujiang district in the city of Shaoguan, was found dead after apparently hanging himself in his apartment this morning. Police have ruled out homicide as a possibility, though the investigation is still currently ongoing. Su was transferred to the position he held at the time of his death in September of last year. more ›

A number of former football referees and officials, including a FIFA World Cup referee, were convicted of corruption charges in Northeast China yesterday. Nine defendants were given sentences of up to seven years in prison, and other cases are still pending. more ›

"An official will be sneered at as a freak if he refuses to take money." more ›

Here's more on the DaVinci media extortion case to which real estate mogul Pan Shiyi recently alluded to. The Singapore-based furniture company has accused a CCTV journalist by the name of Li Wenxue (李文学) of fabricating his reports and extorting 1 million yuan from the firm. Ho Aili, Beijing correspondent of the Straits Times, writes: more ›

"I look at the DaVinci case and I'm reminded of something that happened over a decade ago. At that time, we were often extorted by the media. They'd often say to us: The negative reports we have prepared for you have all been typeset and are ready for print. Bring your ad dollars in exchange for them. We were miserable. Eventually we published two books in which we detailed all our mistakes, customer complaints and criticisms from other industry insiders -- and the extorting journalists stopped appearing." more ›

Shanghai Daily reports: "Three local officials are among the six men detained for having sex with two teenage girls in Lueyang County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, according to the police." more ›

A female government official in Liaoning province has been executed almost a year after she was found guilty of corruption: more ›

This just in, fellow Shanghai residents -- you are miserable! Sure, we may have the highest living standard on the mainland and one of the most vibrant skylines in the world, but who really cares about modern amenities anyway. According to the National China Institute of City Competitiveness, Shanghai ranked dead last among all major metropolitan centers, and was further embarrassed by 90+ smaller cities around China in a report released today. more ›

Though the rumors had been kicking around for a while, an official report from CCTV confirms that the Shanghainese former deputy chief engineer for the Ministry of Railways Zhang Shuguang (张曙光) kept overseas deposits worth $2.8 billion USD. In contrast, former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun (刘志军, he of the 18 mistresses), made off with only a piddling $155 million USD worth of red-packet money. more ›

Nine months later, the sentences are now beginning to rain down on those the Shanghai government has decided were responsible for the residential blaze in Jing'an district that killed 58 people. Surprisingly, nobody yet is slated to executed. Instead, the highest-profile official has "only" gotten 16 years, which has some of the victims' families upset. more ›

For 12 years the deportation case of Lai Changxing has been languishing in Canadian courts. Though it was known that he scammed the Chinese government out of millions of dollars worth of tax money, his lawyer made the case that, should he be deported, the Chinese justice system would not give him a fair trial. Being returned to China would mean torture and possibly execution, argued Lai's lawyer. “But Justice Shore ruled that ‘Mr. Lai has failed to establish that he will suffer irreparable harm if he were returned to China.’ The judge said the fact that Mr. Lai had been in negotiations with Chinese officials to return belied his assertions of risk if he returns. Chinese officials have assured Canada that Mr. Lai would not be executed or tortured and would get a fair trial with access to a lawyer if he is returned to face charges.” Source: NYTimes.
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"TWO former vice mayors in east China, convicted of corruption and taking millions of yuan in bribes, were put to death today. Xu Maiyong, 52, former vice mayor of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, and Jiang Renjie, former vice mayor of Suzhou, a city in Jiangsu Province, were executed today, Xinhua reported. Xu was given the death sentence for taking 145 million yuan (US$22.31 million) in bribes, embezzling 53 million yuan and abusing power. Nicknamed 'Xu of Plenty' because he possessed a lot of money, houses and women, Xu accepted and sought bribes from 14 companies and individuals and helped them get government projects, evade taxes, obtain land and get government jobs, China News Service reported. Jiang was found guilty of accepting 108.57 million yuan in bribes from property developers between 2001 and 2004 when he was in charge of urban planning, construction and real estate development in Suzhou." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Congratulations, Red Cross Society! You're now in the running for most venal organization in China, against some pretty stiff competition. But if you keep overspending on real and imagined projects, then who knows, you might just win the title outright. more ›

ibribery.com, where Chinese could go and report incidents of bribery, has been shut down by the authorities. Chen Hong started the website after seeing a similar idea in India. It got 200,000 unique visitors in two weeks before censors banned users inside China from accessing it. Chen closed the website over the weekend. more ›